The Edge
by Limited Wisdom
Summary: Seth has made it through high school, no more newborn armies, or Volturi. He has even found his mate, now if she would only see him as a man instead of a child things would be absolutely perfect. Citrusy fluff, so hence the M rating.
1. Chapter 1

Summary: Seth Clearwater is finally has made it through high school, no more newborn armies, no more Volturi. He has even found his mate, now if she would only see him as a man instead of a child things would be absolutely perfect. Citrusy fluff, so hence the M rating. Supernatural, beyond the wolves and vampires so beware.

Disclaimer: I don't own the wolves or the vampires, those belong to SM. I am just borrowing them for a bit of fun.

A/N: For those of you who have not read Dreaming at Dawn, many characters from that story will be returning here but this is not an attempt to do a sequel and I will try my best for this story to be a standalone. But it might give you a better explanation as to who the family actually is and their background. Now that all that is over let us get to Seth, my favorite wolf by far.

Chapter 1: On the brink

The word edge can be used as both a noun and a verb, currently in my mind it was a noun. It was easy for me to see that ledge, I had approached it many times in the past few years but never managed to cross. The edge was just a metaphor regarding the line that was the division between a child and an adult. I desperately wanted to go over the edge, but circumstances kept holding me back.

Some people might argue that I had no reason to complain about my life. Here I was a kid from a small reservation who only had one parent left and I was going to college on a "full ride". I got to live with my sister and her boyfriend, Phil, at his really awesome house. It was so cool that there was even a housekeeper that kept the fridge stocked and the house relatively picked up. I also had my school completely paid for, which was more than awesome. All I had to do was the occasional load of laundry and take classes - I have to admit any way you looked at it this was a really sweet deal.

Embry, Quil, Leah and Jake were the only ones who could even begin to understand my discontent. It was not that they could relate, it was simply a matter of being a part of the pack and when we all shifted they could hear what was going on in my head.

So here I was sitting on the brink between childhood and adulthood, currently I was in a no man's land - I had seen too much to retain the innocence of a child but according to the number I was barely eighteen and should be too young to make any major life altering decisions. The wolf genes made it so that I looked close to twenty five years old, but everyone around me seemed to be determined to keep me in the role of a child: my mother, my sister, and worst of all... my mate.

She is the one who hurt me the most, I don't think she meant any harm and had told me numerous times that she just wanted me to have more time to be carefree before I had to take on the role of an adult. But shit, I was a werewolf, and had been since I was fourteen, my father had died and I had faced certain death - how the hell was I supposed to retain my innocence? I was not a pessimist by any means, quite the opposite it was usually easy for me to see the silver lining in any cloud but currently it was getting a little harder than usual to make the best of things. It was not that I wanted to have a job, with car and house payments - what I really wanted more than anything else was a relationship, Josefine had put me in the 'you are too young category' and thus treated me like a child when all I wanted was to be hers...her man. I also wanted to get to freaking first base... but those were the teenage hormones talking.

Since I was a wolf I had imprinted on her the moment I saw her, I had no choice but to want to be her everything. Over time I had come to know the woman that fate had chosen for me and I had fallen completely and irrevocably in love. Even if I had not imprinted it would have been hard not to fall for her. At first she glance gave the impression of being cold and calculating, but the heart beating underneath that tough exterior was pure gold. She was the eldest grandchild in a very powerful family, all her life she had been taught to go to any lengths to protect her family and that is exactly what she did. All her decisions were influenced by this, her need to protect and take care of her family as well as the people around shaped all her actions. It also did not help that she was not exactly human; when she went all out to protect her family it went beyond what most "people" would do.

My mother had been somewhat intimidated by Sassy, and had cautioned me about trying to start a relationship with her. Sassy had never had made me feel inferior, she had always treated me like an equal...an equal little brother whose opinions matter, but one that is too young to engage in a romantic relationship.

I gave a sigh, twelve days... Sassy had been gone for nearly two weeks now. She was currently somewhere in China, adding the finishing touches on some contract she was helping write between two companies. If you ever suffered from a bout of insomnia I knew just the cure, simply start reading the contract between two companies wanting to do business together. You will either end up with a massive headache or passed out from boredom.

I never realized there were that many specialties of lawyers, before meeting Sassy I thought the only kind of lawyers that existed were the trial lawyers - the usual defense attorneys or prosecutors. I had been quickly corrected, there were lawyers out there that practically never saw the inside of a courtroom. Sassy's or Josefine if you asked her real name specialized in international law, which translated to a lot of contracts and a great deal of traveling. It also did not help that she was new to the firm, spoke several languages fluently and was willing to go the extra mile to do her job - so she was always on the go and not at home.

When I had been living at home I had spent many an evening with Sassy and her cousin Kendrick in the cabin in the middle of the woods. It was just a few minutes run from the Rez, my mother had allowed it because my grades had shot up all of a sudden after I had started to go there - it was amazing how much difference completing your homework and turning it in made in your grade. At first I had not met Sassy, she has some psychic abilities and had known I was going to imprint on her. So she had avoided being seen so that I could lead a more "normal life" and have more choices.

I had gone there to apologize for a something stupid I had done after finding my then girlfriend making out with another guy, it was Kendrick's fault that he had offered me food. He was a good cook and so I had come back for more, and that was when he started asking me about my homework; we made a deal, he would cook for me while I did my homework. After a few months of this teachers had been suspicious and had accused me of cheating, until Kendrick paid them a visit and gave them a piece of his mind - there was not mention of cheating after that.

Circumstances made it so that Sassy could not avoid being seen by me and I finally imprinted on her. Things did not change much after that, I still went to the cabin to be fed and to do my homework but this time Sassy would be there too. She had managed to rearrange her schedule so that she would always be home in the afternoons, but that had changed when she had picked up more work. It also had not helped that one of the partners figured out what a freaking awesome lawyer she was and gave her some of the toughest clients. Since Sassy was now living in Seattle I really did not have to think too hard about where I wanted to go to college.

At first my mother had been hesitant to see me move into a house with my mate, but I had pointed out that my entire pack, including my sister also lived here. Esme Cullen, the sweet motherly vampire, had spent a great deal of effort expanding Phil's house to accommodate all the werewolves that were moving in. Quil, Embry and Jake had already settled in and were already going to school. I was the last one to join the pack in Seattle.

Sam had been a little hesitant when we all up and left but after the craziness of the Volturi's visit settled down it became very obvious that two alphas living in close proximity to each other was not a good thing. I had moved in just a few weeks ago, my mother had been determined to keep her "baby" around as long as possible. It also helped that she needed someone to do the hard and messy job of cleaning the boats, she had kept the family boat renting business running all by herself after father had died. That meant that I was always guaranteed a job whenever I needed it and sometimes even when I did not want to work.

The first few days had been awesome with Sassy spending most of the nights hanging out with me, but then she had left and now I only got to talk to her on the phone. I needed my mate fix, and as the days had gone by I had become increasingly more grumpy.

"Hey Seth, are you coming? I think everyone is sitting down for lunch," Jake asked me sticking his head in the door of our bedroom.

"Oh yeah sure," I mumbled looking away from the rain splattered window overlooking the perfect landscaping outside. I did not bring any furniture when I had come here, the extra bed had already been in place for when I would come down and visit Leah. When I had first started to come more to visit my sister more regularity someone had added a dresser and had even gone so far as to fill the closet with some clothes for me. Based on the slight scent of lavender and gardenias on the clothes I was going to guess that Sassy had something to do with my expanding wardrobe. I noticed that she had pretty much stuck to long sleeve tshirts and jeans, I was somewhat surprised at first considering as far as I knew Sassy only ever wore suits. I should not have been shocked, she was a very thoughtful woman who paid attention to details and would know what type of clothes would be comfortable for me. I sighed again and headed down the hall to the large kitchen/dining room.

"Hey Seth, do you need to borrow some Midol?" my sister asked as I joined everyone for lunch. "It should help with some of your PMS symptoms."

"Just say no Seth, we don't know what would happen if Leah stopped taking her meds," Embry was already sitting at the table trying to take a bite out of a sandwich that was bigger than his head.

"What the hell Embry? Did you use an entire loaf of bread to make that?" I know as wolves we were supposed to have a higher metabolism but that was seriously disgusting.

"Back off Seth, get your own damn sandwich. This one is my masterpiece." Embry even made a small growl in my direction before going back to staring at his sandwich with what looked like a mixture of adoration and lust. Some people loved their food a little too much.

"Relax, I concede that the sandwich is your kill," making the pretense of backing away slowly and carefully, I headed to the kitchen to kill my own bread and sliced meat.

"Phil says to not touch the fresh mozzarella, he has plans and will kick our asses if it gone by the time he gets home from work tonight." Leah called as I walked past the counter and headed to the fridge. She was not kidding, there was a large note written with that exact same message on the fridge, we were also supposed to leave the cherry tomatoes alone.

I made my own sandwich, it was not as big as Embry's and I had tried to add extra cut up veggies onto my plate. Sassy was a vegetarian by culture and if I was going to visit her country I was going to have to learn to eat a lot less meat. Kendrick had explained that they were not totally strict about it, the vegetarian lifestyle was simply a function of grains to feed livestock being very expensive to grow and people having learned to make do without meat. It was actually pretty awesome when they made their "traditional" foods, everything was beyond delicious. But I guess when you make your traditional food for other people you don't pull out the 'tuna surprise and cauliflower casserole' recipe and instead do something like pizza and root beer. Hmm, tomatoes and mozzarella - I wonder if Phil was going to make his homemade pizza for dinner.

In order to try to fit in with Sassy and her traditions I had come to a compromise with myself, I would try to eat more veggies and cut out some of the meat. Sometimes it was a hard thing to do considering someone else tended to cook the meals, but when I had the choice between more green versus more meat I would pick the more green - unless we were talking about bacon. But even Sassy ate bacon on occasion, she was not one of those hard core vegans. She also was in complete love with my father's fish fry, she had given me a heart attack when she had flipped me off for pointing out that fish was still technically a meat.

Three more days and she would be home again, maybe I could go buy some fresh fish and make her some fish fry when she came back.

Angus was sitting at the table eating some sort of soup, he gave me a nod when I sat down next to him. Angus was Phil's adopted cousin or something like that, he was extremely tall even next to us wolves, his height gave the illusion of being thin but I had seen him in action and knew there were a lot of very useful muscles hidden beneath his long button down shirt and khaki pants. If it were not for the fact that he was so pale, his dark eyes and hair would have made him appear to be a native american at first glance.

He was kind of cool, some sort of private investigator that was doing freelance work. Though technically I think he had an engineering degree in electronics. Phil had referred to him as a 'peeping Tom' since Angus specialized in making surveillance equipment. "So you ready for freshman orientation?" Angus asked me between spoonfuls of his soup.

"Yeah it is going to be awesome!" Embry answered for me with a large burp, Leah reached over and smacked him on the back of the head. I was somewhat surprised that he did not retaliate but seemed to accept the reprimand with a small apology sent in her direction.

Angus noticed my surprise, and gave me a small smirk, "the women of my family have decided your pack members are going to learn some manners even if it has to be beaten into them. I think your sister has been left to hold down the fort in their absence."

"Yeah Sassy and Stefi have left me explicit instructions, we are working on table manners this week," Leah explained with a small laugh.

"I don't know, it is kind of scary and exciting all at the same time," I answered Angus' question.

"What kind of soup is that?" Quil asked eyeing the bowl in front of Angus.

"Minestrone, and there is some left in the fridge if you want to try it," Angus replied giving Quil a dirty look. Quil seemed to perk up and even gave a hopeful look towards the fridge until Angus continued, "it is of course vegetarian Minestrone."

Quil made a face and sat back down in his chair grabbing the bag of chips and dumping the remainder of the bag on his plate.

Angus gave a small smile, "hey guys, how can you tell who is a vegan at a party?"

"I don't know why don't you tell us," I asked since no one else seemed to be helping him with the joke.

"Don't worry, they will tell you," Angus finished his joke with a hearty laugh. I did not think it was that funny but I tried to laugh a little.

"Great now you are going to encourage him," Leah mumbled under her breath.

I shrugged my shoulders, Angus usually told pretty funny jokes. Though they usually tended to be totally perverted.

"What, you did not like that one?" he started again after thinking for a minute. "All right here goes another one: A man and a woman started to have sex in the middle of a dark forest. After about 15 minutes of it, the man finally gets up and says, 'Damn, I wish I had a flashlight!'... The woman says, 'Me too, you've been eating grass for the past ten minutes!'..." Angus finished his joke with another laugh, this time the rest of us joined in.

It took me only a moment to get the joke, something about being a virgin gave you plenty of time to get well informed about all the various ways to have sex. You had nothing better to do, or something along those lines. Considering the fact that I had only ever kissed a girl I had come up with some pretty elaborate scenarios involving Sassy and me.

Jake had mentioned one time that Edward Cullen had been a virgin until he married Bella, if you take into consideration that he was over one hundred years old that must have amounted to a lot of jacking off. Ok the picture of Edward Cullen masturbating needed to leave my head, right now. Not that I was one to speak, I was a teenage boy with no girlfriend, it did not take a genius to figure what I did on my spare time.

It had been tolerable in the past - think of sex, get boner, think of something nonsexual and loose boner or if the time was convenient take care of it. Then Leah and Phil had given me my graduation present - a trip to Hawaii, Phil's family have a house on a private beach there that I got to stay at for over two weeks. I had been so excited at the time, little did I know that it would be my own personal heaven and hell.

How can you possibly be in heaven and hell at the same time? Sassy in a bikini, all that glorious skin exposed and you can't touch. Just thinking about it gave me instant wood.

A/N: So what do you gals think? Is it weird hearing this story from a virgin teenage boy's perspective? Next up will be a flashback to Seth's heaven and hell experience.

Reviews make Seth have a higher chance of getting to first base with Sassy. :D


	2. Heaven and Hell

Disclaimer: I don't own the wolves or vampires they belong to SM.

Hi guys sorry it took so long, I promise I had it all ready Saturday morning, but the website would not allow me to update, so if you saw this my attempts to do it worked ...Hooray.

A/N: First of all I would like to thank my reviewers it really gave me the encouragement to write this. Thanks Hilja, Twilighter (who I can never personally thanks because you never leave your name), TwilightLuver26,

CM1380 (whoever you might be :D), Woh-man (nice name) and connect2tjb.

Thanks everyone who put on alerts, it really makes working on this worth it. Last but not least I thanks everyone who followed the story from Dreaming at Dawn, I hope this lives up to your expectations. Hugs and kisses and happy squeals.

Second, a friendly warning, this is an M rated story; Seth is technically legal now insert happy dance here.

* * *

Chapter 2: Heaven and Hell

Two month ago, Seattle

"Come on sunshine, rise and shine," I heard my sister's voice. At first I thought I was still dreaming. Leah now lived in Seattle with her boyfriend Phil, and had decided to stay there for the summer to take some classes and work on her research project. She should not be in my bedroom.

I felt something poking me in the side, "go away mom, it is summer," I mumbled while I tried to roll away.

"Maybe we should pull in the garden hose and spray him down with it?" Was that Phil talking...man this was a strange dream. "Why is he so sleepy this morning?"

"He stayed up late last night so that he could hang out with Sassy," I heard my sister explain. "I guess he does not want to come to Hawaii with us."

That was when I remembered, I was not dreaming, it really was my sister and Phil talking. Today was the day we were all headed to Hawaii. I immediately sat up in bed, "I am awake, when do we leave?"

Phil gave a small laugh at my enthusiasm, but who could blame me? As part my graduation present Phil and Leah were taking me with them for a two week vacation in Hawaii.

"Well if we leave in the next half an hour we will get to see the sunrise," Phil pointed out from where he was leaning against doorway.

Traveling to Hawaii with Phil was the easiest thing possible, he was not technically human and so he had some awesome skills. So how do you travel across half the Pacific Ocean when you are going with Phil? You simply step through the distortion in space and time that he creates and voila you are in Hawaii.

I had not used this method of travel a great deal so it was still at little disconcerting, Leah seemed to be a lot less bothered by it. We were in a small clearing surrounded by green, the foliage of both the underbrush and the trees were both a vibrant green so that was not much different from Washington. The cloudless sky above us was starting to lighten, it would be sunrise soon.

"Come on let us stash our suitcases in the house then we can head down to the beach," Phil instructed picking up his bags and heading towards a small break in the wall of green that surrounded us. I repositioned the duffle bag over my shoulder and followed my sister and Phil.

I should not have been surprised by the size of the place, the family had a lot of wealth and tended to invest a great deal in real estate. The building that we approached was two stories tall, with what looked like wide wood plank siding and a red tile roof. The landscaping surrounding the house was breathtaking, I usually did not pay attention to these sort of things but it was kind of hard to miss. Even in the low light I could tell that I had never in my life seen that many flowers all in one place. I could not see anything that resembled a lawn amongst the foliage. There were shrubs, flowers and trees as well as what looked to be rocks smoothed out to look like benches. In the distance I could hear the roar of the ocean as well as smell the salt on the air. We must be really close to the water, the sounds of waves pounding against the shore was familiar.

We followed the crushed rock pathway that expanded as we got closer to the house, in several places a smaller branch broke off from the main pathway and disappeared into the greenery that surrounded us. It would be interesting to see where those would lead, this place promised to have a lot of surprises.

"Oh my god what is that smell?" Leah asked immediately distracted by a clump of flowers.

"Probably one of the flowers?" Phil pointed out the obvious, I watched as Leah casually flipped him off. It was amusing seeing the two of them interact at times, they were both stubborn and sarcastic to the max.

Phil quickly led us up the wide staircase, "we can leave our bags just inside, I can give you guys the tour in a little bit. Come to think of it, the view from the balcony my be best."

We walked through the darkened living room with large sturdy looking furniture, "wow you really have the pineapple theme going on here," I pointed out as we went past yet another chair with pineapples carved into the wood.

"It is a Hawaiian thing, it is supposed to represent home and hospitality or something along those lines," Phil stated as he led us up the staircase. At the top of the stairs we were greeted by a long hallway with three doors on either side, all the doors were closed so I could not take a look inside.

"So why are we rushing?" Leah asked Phil when he grabbed her hand to lead hear to the end of the hallway where there was a set of large french doors. He did not answer for a minute, instead he pulled her onto the balcony and around the corner. I followed at an eager pace, Phil seemed to have a plan. It looked like balcony on the second floor wrapped around the entire house.

There only a few small windows on this side of the house, instead of the windows it looked like there were large french doors that led into the bedrooms. This did not hold my attention for long, there was something much more awesome to look at.

The trees and greenery was gone from this side of the house, it looked like the beach came all the way up to the stilts that the house stood on. A few sand dunes covered in green vines gave way to the actual beach of sand. In the distance past the waves you could see the first hints of orange.

Phil wrapped his arms around Leah and rested his chin on the top of hers while she leaned back on him. They seemed to do this without thinking, and I hoped that one day I would be comfortable enough with my mate that it would be this way for us as well. I was not jealous of my sister, I was happy truly happy for her - Phil was such a good match for her it was uncanny.

I walked a little ways down the balcony so that they could have their privacy. In a household full of wolves and other immortal beings with excellent hearing abilities it must be hard for them to get a private moment. I guess this is why they tended to take off somewhere else every chance that they got.

I leaned against the balcony and watched the sun come up over the water. It was kind of strange if you thought about it, this sunrise had already happened in Seattle. Though it had not really made an appearance since it was more than likely hiding behind the clouds there.

Here the few clouds that dotted the sky would not be able to hinder the sun's full glory. I wonder how hot it would actually get, would the heat bother me? or would it be like the cold? I could tell that it was cold but it did not matter one bit.

The song birds waking up and starting to welcome the morning in their own way. I don't think I have ever heard this number of birds together in one spot, as the light got brighter more and more joined in to the point where there was a cacophony of chirps and squawks. It suited this place, everything seemed in excess: the plants, the water, the smells and even the sounds. Even the heat was in excess, it was barely sunrise but the air already felt as hot as it would at midday in Seattle.

I don't know how long I would have stood there had it not been for the angry grumblings of my empty stomach. I rubbed it a little hoping to settle it so that I could spend a little more time out here. Because I had lived on the west coast all my life I had never seen the sunrise over the water, only the sunset. It is amazing how much of a difference it actually made.

Phil finally took pity on me and ushered us back downstairs where he made us breakfast. The kitchen was very large and modern, there was no division between it and the large dinning room. Phil threw open a pair of doors that led onto the porch that had a smaller version of the dining room table as well as what looked like a bar and a barbecue. Someone had come by yesterday and delivered basics for the fridge as well as an amazing quantity of fruits.

"Well I guess we don't have to worry about getting enough fiber in our diet," I joked as Leah and I started peeling and cutting up fruit for breakfast, while Phil made some omelets.

I popped a couple of pieces of papaya into my mouth, before adding the rest to the bowl of fruit. "Oh my god? It looks like papaya but I never had anything that tasted even remotely this good."

"Yeah it makes a difference when you eat it in the place where it is native. You should see how yummy the pastries taste in Paris." Leah explained as she too ate some fruit.

Phil gave a laugh as he pulled out another carton of eggs. "Sure Princess, pastries are a plant native to Paris."

"You know what I mean," Leah walked over and hip checked Phil and gave him a fake glare.

"Yes dear," Phil replied while dropping a quick kiss on her lips before going back to making breakfast.

"A boy could starve around you two, do I need to call mom and complain that you are too busy flirting to feed me."

"From the looks of it half the papaya is already in your stomach, so you have nothing to complain about." Leah came back to my side of the kitchen island and began to slice some oranges.

"I will stop by the market today and see if they have any fun ingredients. We might even make Haupia, a coconut pudding of sorts, for dessert tonight." Phil said as he put a pan on the stove for the eggs.

We ate breakfast outside, it was too beautiful of a day to stay inside. I had to peel another papaya because I ended up eating most of the first one. Some of the flowers that had been closed during the night were starting to open, adding their intoxicating scent to the already fragrant air.

"Wow you could really get drunk on this stuff," Leah said as she touched a small pale yellow flower that was growing up and over the railing next to us.

"The natives call it Pikake, but most of us know it as Jasmine. We have it in our garden at home, just a different variety." Phil gave her a small smile before he leaned over and kissed her again.

"Ewww enough with the PDA, I am too young and too beautiful to be an uncle." It was my duty as a younger brother to harass Leah as much as possible. Come to think of it technically Phil would one day be my brother in law, so I should extend him the same courtesy.

After breakfast Phil and Leah went off to 'look around' in the garden though I am pretty sure they were just looking for a place to make out. Most days they acted like a pair of horny teenagers, I my best to think about what they did behind closed doors.

I on the other hand explored the house and made myself at home. The bottom floor of the house consisted of a large living room, the kitchen and dining room combo, a bathroom as well as a small utility room. The walls here were a brilliant white that contrasted with the dark grey stone floors - I wondered about the stone but then I figured that the sand would probably ruin wood floors.

The top floor had five bedrooms, three on either side of the house and in place of the sixth bedroom there was a small study filled with books, comfy looking reading chairs, and a couple of desks. The walls were all a painted a pale yellow and the floors were all hardwood, except for the bathrooms which were all a matching pale colored granite or something. Looking out my bedroom window I noticed a small building half hiding behind several trees, so I went back downstairs and headed in the opposite direction from where Phil and Leah had gone.

The shed was bigger than I had originally thought and looked like a combination of garage and storage shed. There were two cars parked inside, one was an old jeep that looked like it had been meticulously maintained, the other was a newer looking SUV. On the other side of the building was the storage area, here I found equipment to play every possible outdoor sport ever invented by man. This included volleyball nets, beach balls, as well as over a dozen surf boards.

"I guess when in Hawaii do like the natives." I made the all important hang loose sign as I looked at the boards. I wonder if I they were public property of if they belong to specific people.

"Hey Seth you want to learn how to surf?" Leah's voice made me jump a little, I had been in such deep thought that I had not heard her approach.

"Are you going to teach me? Since you are the expert on the subject," I knew that she and Phil had been doing some surfing on the island over the past couple of years.

"Yeah if you want, we can go out early tomorrow... right now Phil and I were going to go to one of the open air markets for a couple of hours if you wanted to join us. We were also going to grab something to eat while we were there." I had nothing better to do so I decided to join them, especially when they mentioned food. Hey teenage werewolf here, offer me food and I will follow.

We ended up spending several hours at the market, Phil had bought us our Leis so that we could have a truly Hawaiian welcome. I felt kind of silly walking around with a flower necklace but Leah seemed to enjoy herself, she ended up with two more since she found another vendor that was selling one that was "prettier" than hers.

"You are such a girl," I teased her as I watched her put the third Lei around her neck.

She looked down at her chest before felt herself up, "well what do you know, I am a girl." The look of surprise on her face could have fooled most people.

I rolled my eyes and walked on, she was far too freaking happy these days. She was giving me a run for my money, and I was supposed to be the perpetually happy guy in the family. We ran around the market tasting different foods and gawking at some of the more exotic looking plants and produce - we were acting like complete tourists but I did not give a crap, since I was a tourist. Leah and I got so bad that Phil threatened to buy us 'I love Hawaii shirts' if we did not stop.

In the end he did buy us the shirts, but we were not bothered by his teasing and ended up wearing them on the way home. Somehow there was a 'mixup' and Phil ended up buying Leah a shirt that was too small. He apologized profusely for his mistake while staring at my sister's chest with a leer on his face.

"If you do not stop staring and pay attention to the road I will push you out of the jeep," Leah threatened him with a playful growl.

While we had been playing around Phil had actually managed to buy us actual food. That night I learned from Phil that there was nothing in the world that you could not cook on the barbecue, so we ended up spending most of the evening outside on the porch eating food and watching the stars.

* * *

The next morning Leah remembered he plans to teach me how to surf, and we discovered two very important facts. The first was that I was not the best surfer in the world, the other fact was that Leah was not the most patient teacher. It took us all morning but I was finally able to stand up on the board, at least for a few seconds. After our first shouting match Phil had gone off to do his own surfing and had left us on our own.

The days that followed were of the same pattern, surf or hang out on the beach in the mornings, then we would go to some touristy place in the afternoon and come back at night to hang out on the beach. I spoke over the phone daily with Sassy, and gave her progress reports on my inability to pick up surfing. She made promises to help me when she came down in a few days time.

I excited on the seventh morning of our stay in Hawaii, Sassy was going to join us today. I woke up early and made my own breakfast of cereal and fruit before heading out to the beach. I could hear Phil upstairs in the study moving around, while Leah was still snoring softly.

"Today is the day that I am going to ride a freaking wave." I tried to psych myself up.

The sun had barely risen when I hit the water, I was a lot more relaxed now that I did not have Leah breathing down my neck. She really was a crappy teacher, I really should not be mean. My third time on the board I actually succeed in not only standing up but actually staying standing up. I heard a small cheer coming from the shore, and that was enough to break my concentration. The board swayed underneath me and I gave up and let myself fall face first into the water. The impact did not hurt at all, but the salt water being pushed up my nose stung.

When I finally got my bearing again I turned my head, ready to be annoyed with whoever had bothered me this morning. I looked over to the shore and felt my jaw drop.

Sassy all dressed up in a business suit was beautiful, she made you want to mess her perfect outfit up. Sassy wearing nothing but a pale pink bikini with aviator sunglasses was breathtaking. I had heard the term 'instant hard-on' before but I thought the guys were exaggerating, apparently I now stand corrected. Hmm speaking of standing up, as much as I wanted nothing more than to get out of the water and go greet the woman that was walking all slinky and long legged towards the water, there was no way to hide my erection.

"Morning, Seth," she told me pleasantly. "You looked pretty good out there, Leah must not be that bad of a teacher."

My only reply was a blush, the material of the suit was very formfitting and I could see the perfect curves of her breasts. _Hello girls, how are you doing this morning?_ I tried to mentally slap myself, but I could not think of anything to say. I felt like that wolf from the Saturday morning cartoons, the one whose eyes are bulging out of his head and his tongue is hanging out of his mouth while the big puddle of drool forms underneath him.

I have always thought that Sassy was pretty much perfect: she was smart, protective, polite and always kind to me. She had a pretty face that did not need a lot of cosmetics and when she smiled it was like the entire world disappeared. I knew that she was in good shape because she used to come jogging with me in the woods. In the past couple of years I had seen her in every version of a suit, when we went jogging she wore the sweat pants and long sleeve T-shirt that were the standard uniform of western Washington. Nothing, and I mean nothing had prepared me for seeing her in a bikini, I mean seriously she should come with a warning label.

"Seth are you all right?" Sassy asked me with in a seriously concerned tone.

I finally got the wherewithal to speak, "umm, yeah."

"Did you bump your head or something?" she asked reaching over to brush some hair off my face.

I took an instant step back, at this point if she were to come any closer I might lose all control and tackle her right here on the beach. "No my head is fine," _at least the one on top of my shoulders was_.

"So are you going to cling to that surfboat like a lifeline all day long or are you going to actually try to do some more surfing?" Sassy asked with a carefree laugh now that she had ascertained that I was unharmed.

I had never seen her this relaxed before, it was like she always had a barrier up that kept people at a distance - now that barrier was gone, and I was seeing the woman underneath the mask she usually wore. I had seen glimpses and hints of this woman in the past but now I was seeing the true 'Sassy' the one that had probably earned her the nickname. I wanted to keep her like this forever, and my dick heartily agreed. _Get your mind out of the gutter Seth._

"Um yeah sure, let's go surfing, maybe you could be a better teacher than Leah. She has absolutely zero patience." _There you go Seth, you can actually speak._ Now all I had to do was get rid of the ragging woody and everything would be great.

I made sure that my board stayed between me and Sassy at all times as I headed back to the water. I was too distracted to be able to regain my sense of balance again. No one could blame me, especially when it became apparent that Sassy's bikini became practically see-thru when wet. I could see the perfect outline of her nipples. I thought Sassy finally given up on me when I noticed her leaving the beach, but she came back with a bigger board.

"Wow, what is that for?" I asked as she got closer to the water.

"You need to learn how to balance, it just takes a little practice and with this board we can go out together and I can hold you up."

Sassy teaching me surfing was ecstasy and pain, she would stand up behind me and encourage me to follow her up. She would hold her hands out around me in an almost embrace and every once in a while would put her hands on my hips to adjust my stance - it was a good thing I was wearing really baggy swim trunks and that she was behind me most of the time. Her hands were surprisingly soft but firm, as she explained various things like wind speed and what direction I wanted my board to face. As much as I liked her touching me, it was agony that I could not touch her back.

When we got back to the house I noticed that we were alone, I quickly headed upstairs to wash off the ocean and to put on some clothes. "You need to calm down," I told little Seth when I finally got into the shower, "nothing is going to happen." But he did not listen to me, instead he bobbed up and down as the water hit it. I rolled my eyes, here I was talking to my own dick like it was another person. Though I guess at this point it did have a mind of its own, and he was thinking about one thing only: Sassy.

I gave a sigh and decided that if I was going to get through the rest of the afternoon without embarrassing myself I would have to do something about my 'problem'. I would have to take matters into my own hands, I reached over and squeezed some shower gel into my hand. Starting at the head I moved my hand slowly up and down, I pictured what would have happened had I had the guts to turn around on that surfboard. What would her lips have tasted like? Would they be as soft as they looked? I squeezed the head a little bit harder and continued with my fantasies of kissing Sassy. It did not take but a couple of strokes for me to finish, but then I had been ready to cum all morning long. Sassy in a bikini had really done a number on me, her soft and round breasts outlined by the straining pink fabric. I felt myself getting hard again and decided I needed to think of something else, hmmm our principal Mrs Everson chewing me out for skipping so much school.

After unpleasant thought I showered as quickly as possible so that it would not be obvious what I had been doing in the shower. Even with the extra time I had spent in the shower I still beat Sassy downstairs. I did not hear her shower upstairs so she must be done by now.

It took her another twenty minutes to come downstairs, in the meantime I was starting to get a little hungry. I was eyeing the fresh fruit in the bowl wondering when I heard her bedroom door opening and closing.

She was coming down the stairs and still out of sight when she spoke, "sorry I took so long, it takes me a while to get all the tangles out of my hair."

I turned towards the stairs ready to tell her it was not a problem when I finally saw her. Considering the fact that I had just jacked off I should not be able to get instantly hard again.

Sassy was wearing some form of dress, it was all white which was a startling contrast to her dark skin. That was not the part that had me nearly swallowing my tongue, no... it was her hair. For the first time it was not pinned closely to her head in some elaborate style. It was simply pulled back in a ponytail, from there is cascaded down her back all the way to her knees. Like a silky, shiny, black waterfall. It was not the bone straight hair of my people, no her luxuriant hair fell in soft waves. In some places chunks of hair lovingly curled around her shoulders and hips almost like she was being embraced by the dark tresses. Was it possible to be jealous of hair?

She gave a small shake of hear head, cause the hair to shift against her skin, I made a small noise that was a combination between growl and groan.

"Have you been to a lot of places on the island?" she asked as she walked past me to the kitchen.

It took me a while to find my voice, "yeah we went to the market as well as to some of the botanical gardens. Leah is really into flowers right now, and Phil pretty much gives his Princess anything she wants. I have to admit it was pretty cool. We also toured one of the old coffee plantations, and we went down to the historic village for a little bit." I would just have to keep my eyes on her face, and I should be fine. My dick most heartily disagreed, keeping my eyes up was not something he liked.

"So what you are telling me is that you have not gone to any of the really cool places," it was a statement not a question, I merely shrugged. She could take me to the landfill and so long as it was with her I would have fun. It was a mate thing, so long as she was happy, I was happy.

"Whatever you want to do?" I spoke in a low voice. Wow was that really me talking? I tried to clear my throat a little.

"Seth you get to pick too? This is your vacation, I have already been to Hawaii. This is your first time so we can do anything you want." She gave me a small exasperated smile.

"I just don't know all that much about it. Maybe I should have researched it or something." Luckily my voice was starting to sound normal again.

"All right let me tell you about some of your choices. There is a really pretty highway a little bit from here, it is practically a rain forest. We are talking amazing plants and some beautiful waterfalls. On the other side of the spectrum we can go hiking like Phil and Leah, there are some really neat rock formations in an almost desert like area. We can go to an authentic Luau or you can wait for when Angus and Tiffany join us this weekend. I think Phil was planning on cooking a whole pig for that. There is also a helicopter ride that takes you practically over the volcano." I could see the mental checklist she had prepared, Sassy was always a planner.

"Stop, stop... I get it. There is a lot to do and I really don't care. Maybe I don't want to be around too many people right now. It is easier when I don't have to watch every more I make so as not to give myself away, plus the smell of sweat can be overwhelming at times." I ran my hands through my short hair, at least I got to be myself around Sassy.

"All right, why don't we take a drive? That way we don't have to get out of the car."

The Hamakua coast turned out to be an unbelievably beautiful place, "mother nature really has outdone herself here," I barely spoke over a whisper. It felt like we were in the middle of a rainforest.

"Yeah it also helps that they get over 80 inches of rain," Sassy replied with a smile as we followed the road.

"I have never been to a place that is this hot," I was glad for the open top of the jeep, since that equated to a constant breeze. I guess this answered my earlier question, werewolves don't really like the heat.

"My homeland is hotter than this, though the high humidity here makes it seem hotter here. There are days when it is so hot that you can see the waves of heat in the air." I heard the slight longing in her voice, she missed her country.

"Why don't you go back?" If she really wanted to go I would follow her there without hesitation.

"Right now my place is here," she paused with a small smile, "all right, so not exactly here but you understand my meaning. Plus there are some advantages of this place."

"Such as?" I prompted her to continue.

"If you look to my left you can actually see parts of Mauna Kea, the mountain made by the volcano that allows for the existence of this place," she changed the subject and I allowed her - like I had said before, anything to make her happy. "Are you hungry? There are several places we could pull over and eat."

I laughed at her comment, "hello? Was that a rhetorical question because I am always hungry."

She laughed as I intended her to, "one day Seth I will take you home to the island and show you how we party. Three days of eating, drinking and dancing. I assure you would be full before the end of that party."

"Really, when do I get my invitation? Is it formal or casual attire because my tux no longer fits." Sassy dancing was a sight I really wanted to see.

Sassy had packed a basket full of food, she pulled it out of the backseat before I could. She set it down on bench overlooking a waterfall, the spray of the water would hit us in this spot but the cool mist felt really good. We did not speak for a few minutes, instead we concentrated on eating. I of course ate a great deal more, but Sassy was not a lightweight either - I watched as she used her long graceful fingers to place a piece of fruit in her mouth. Her small pink tongue came out to lick the juice that had trickled out of the corned of her mouth. I desperately wanted to take the same path with my own tongue, it was a sure bet that starfruit would taste so much better when licked off her skin. She seemed to be lost in her own thoughts as she popped another piece of fruit into her mouth, this time it was papaya - my favorite. I threw all caution to the wind and started to lean in, determined to get that small piece that had gotten caught on her top lip.

A car suddenly stopped behind us, the sound of gravel flying everywhere broke the spell and brought me back down to earth. Had I really been about to kiss her? In the back of my mind I could remember the few kisses I had shared with Jill, but even in my inexperience I knew that it would not compare to kissing Sassy. Jill had been a schoolboy crush, Sassy owned me - body, heart and soul.

A group of obnoxious guys poured out of the small car, "oh my god look at this fucking awesome pool."

"Hey Jeremy, I dare you to jump in," another one taunted.

"Hey you totally should have tried to pick up that chick, she was totally hot," three of them were leaning leaning against the fence while one was trying to climb over.

"Wow was I ever that obnoxious?" I muttered under my breath. Out of the corner of my eye I watched Sassy shake her mane of hair.

"No, you are not selfish enough to be capable of that sort of behavior," when I fully turned back to her face I could see the love and pride directed straight at me. I could not help it, I was caught by her eyes and could not look away again. "Shall we go on?" She asked after what seemed an eternity but could have been less than a minute.

We ended up coming home really late that night, Sassy just drove while I watched the stars fly by above us. We usually did not get this many stars in Washington, the perpetual cover of clouds prevented true star gazing. I had learned several important things today, one was that it was possible for me to love Sassy even more and two it was important to keep my shirt untucked whenever I was near her.

The days after that were like a dream, occasionally one of the other members of the family would intrude but mainly it was just Sassy and me. Every morning we would wake up early and head out to the beach with our surf boards, usually she ended up sharing one with me. I saw no reason to complain, especially since at times we would just sit there and float. She told me stories about growing up as a member of the family, "when school let out for the summer we would all go back to the island. No matter how far apart we were during the school year my grandmother expected us to come home and be together. So you can imagine how much trouble we got into, that was where we learned the motto 'it is not illegal if you don't get caught'. Though with my grandmother it was really hard not to get caught."

"I cannot really picture that," I told her while I tried to twist around the board so that I could see her face.

"Oh trust me, you would not have recognized me. I was a scrawny kid with out of control mousy brown hair. Did I mention I was really short too? Of course I would try to boss people around even then. Things would get a little dangerous for us at times, because I was not the only one who needed to be a chief," her smile got even bigger as she remembered her childhood. "It made things much worse that the island was the only place we could use our powers without fear of being found out. Some days I am amazed that we all survived. But I became very good at dodging fireballs."

"I know what you mean, since my dad was one of the elders he would go visit Quil, Sr and Billy Black a lot. I don't know how old I was but I can remember Jake and Quil convincing me that I had some sort of rare disease and I would need to eat a worm every day or I would die." It was amazing that I did not get sick.

"So did you? Eat a worm everyday?" Sassy asked, curiosity and humor coloring her voice.

"I am alive and talking to you right now," I explained with a sigh. "The worst part is that Leah found out about it and did not say anything."

"Sometimes I regret being an only child but then people tell me about their siblings and the feeling of longing for siblings goes away," she started paddling again, "now come on one more time and then we have to go early. There is something really fun we are doing today."

With Sassy's help I managed to ride a wave nearly to the shore, we went through the motions of cleaning off and inspecting our board for any damage before stowing it away in the shed.

"Last one to the house is a rotten egg," she yelled _after_ she started running. She almost made it but I used my werewolf strength to jump and landed near the door just a few seconds before her. She narrowed her eyes at me and stomped away when I politely opened the door for her.

It did not take me long to shower and get dressed, first I took care of my "problem". It had become part of my routine, that and long shirts that could cover my crotch.

"We are going to go for a helicopter ride, the island is a magnificent sight from above. But first I thought we would go find something to eat. Phil recommended this hole in the wall place that has really good Spanish food. It gets a little spicy but you have been around us long enough to handle it." She quickly drove us towards the restaurant, which looked like it could be knocked over by a stiff breeze.

"Hmm I think we should probably eat outside," I noticed the small tables set up on the other side of the building. "Can you order for me? I have to go find a restroom."

All the fruit I had been consuming was making me constantly need to pee, but it was totally worth it. Papaya had been replaced as my favorite fruit, pineapple had taken first place. Though Sassy teased that it was because I had so much fun peeling it. It was her fault really, she was the one that showed me how to use the huge knife to just hack away the outer prickly skin.

"You look like you are trying to chop wood," my sister had teased me the first time she had seen me do it.

Stepping out of the surprisingly clean bathroom I immediately searched for Sassy, my eyes narrowed in annoyance when I finally located her. There was an older man talking to her, standing a little too close for my mental well being. As I approached I noticed that Sassy was giving him the polite cool smile she reserved for people she did not want to speak with, that made me feel a little bit better. I walked around a group of tables and stood behind her, glaring at the man over her shoulder.

I almost felt guilty as he finally noticed me, his eyes widened in fear and he took a huge step back. Sassy turned to look at me and rolled her eyes before giving me her genuine smile - the one that involved her whole face: her lips would curl up showing her perfect white teeth, her cute nose would crinkle and laugh lines would appear around her eyes. I had noticed that out everyone she interacted with I was the only one who could make her smile like that.

"The food will be ready in about ten minutes," she spoke quietly before turning around and heading to a table. She had put her hair up in another ponytail and with her quick movement a strand of hair flew around and hit my chest. I did not hesitate for a moment, instead I delicately held it between my finger and thumb. Rubbing it slightly I brought it up to my nose, hoping she would not notice me molesting her hair. It was even softer than I had imagined, and it smelled like heaven itself: gardenias, lilies and the pure smell of Sassy. I wanted to thrust both hands into the dark locks of hair and just burry myself in her scent. Unfortunately she had reached the table and I had to let go, I always had to let go. Despite the fact that she had let down most of her guards she still had me placed in the good friend/little brother category.

I would really need to do something about that, my ever present erection agreed.

* * *

A/N: I apologize profusely if I made any mistakes, I wrote this over two days because I was so excited. I have never been to Hawaii nor can I surf, so all my information is from the internets.

Reviews make me write faster...honest.

Next up we will go back to August, Seth goes to freshman orientation.


	3. Freshman Orientation

Disclaimer: I don't own the wolves or vamps

A/N: For the first order of business, I would like to thank everyone who put me on alert and favorites, if you are reading this I am guessing you got the little message of love :D telling you that the story has been updated.

I would also like to thank connect2tjb, TwilightLuver26, hilja (which by the way your pic of Jake makes me drool and feel like a pedophile at the same time), Jada91, and the ever anonymous Twilighter (no I am not bothered by you telling me to proofread my stories, no I don't think there will be a Sassy's point of view, and I am just teasing about your continued anonymity). Thank you for reviewing, I get way too excited to open my email and find them.

Thanks everyone for reading the story and I appreciate the comments. I have been informed that I had a lot of typos last chapter so I have tried to be a little more careful with this one. Unfortunately every time I proofread a chapter I end up adding another thousand words instead of looking for typos, this time I tried to be good.

All right enough with my blabbing, on with the torture of Seth.

* * *

Chapter 3 - Freshman Orientation

"Have fun, I just have to run some errands but I will be in the area so just call me when you need me to pick you up." My sister gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, and practically pushed me out of her car. I noticed she had picked up the habit of kissing people from Phil's family - over the past few years I had gotten used to being kissed by members of the family. There was only one glaring exception to this rule, and that would be Sassy, she never kissed me on the cheek; at most I got a quick hug with minimal contact.

"Do you have your cell phone?" Leah asked before I could close the door.

"Yeah, right here. Don't worry _mom_, everything will be fine," I lied to her, for some reason I was starting to get antsy. I closed the door of the car before she could call me out on my lie. That was one bad thing about having a werewolf sister, there were very few secrets among wolves. She knew that I had been getting increasingly nervous about this orientation thing, to be honest about the whole college thing. It had not helped that on top of that Sassy was out of town, things had gotten so bad that Embry had started to call me emo-boy. Two more days and she will be back, I tried to console myself with the knowledge that I would have to wait about forty eight more hours - that was not too much. Instead of dwelling on the fact that she was gone I looked around trying to find my bearings. The campus was huge, just one of the building could easily house my old high school four of five times. My heart started to thud nervously, what had I gotten myself into? Maybe I should have gone to one of the smaller colleges, but that would have meant living at home and not seeing Sassy all the time. At times I would wake up in the middle of the night and have to locate her steady heartbeat somewhere in the house before I could fall asleep again - being able to do that was worth putting up with such a large campus. I would just have to get used to it.

"Wow she was pretty hot, do you think he is sleeping with her?" a group of three guys were standing around one of the benches that littered the large lawn. Apparently they had nothing to do but stare at the people around them. They looked to be about my age, eighteen or so; they wore nicely ironed khaki pants and what looked like vintage rock concert shirts that they were far too young to have possibly attended. My first impression of them was not very good but I should not judge, maybe they were not preppy jerks. Father had always told me not to judge a book by its cover, over the years I have found it to be good advice. Upon first impression the Cullens might look like a bunch of blood thirsty vampires, but when you give them a chance they really are a very caring group of people.

"Nah, that was kind of a friendly kiss. She did not even kiss him on the lips or anything." The guy with the old Ozzy shirt spoke with great authority on the subject - not that I knew exactly what they were discussing.

"Yeah, platonic. She did not look that hot, now her car on the other hand. I would like to see what was under that hood." The dirty blonde one chimed in, I could see him leering from the corner of my eye.

"You have such a car fetish, you will remember the type of car in which you fucked a girl , but you won't remember her name," Ozzy boy replied with a laugh. "Look at him, he looks huge, and is probably taking stuff to get that big. You know how steroids are supposed to mess with your sex drive."

It took me a minute to realize that they had been talking about me and my sister, I guess my initial assessment was probably true - preppy jerks. I hoped for their sakes they never decided to hit on my sister, she did not have the sweetest disposition and would more than likely rip off something vital. Even though she had mellowed over the past few years, she could still be somewhat forceful in stating her opinions.

I smiled a little when I pictured my sister confronting the group of boys, and that is all they seemed to me - young boys, life had not given them any true challenges, maybe they would become kinder one they faced a few hardships. They were too far away for me to have overheard them as a regular human being, so there was no way to reassure them that my sex drive was not something they should be concerned about, in fact it was currently in overdrive. Just thinking about sex made me think of...

_Don't think of Sassy's hair. Don't think of Sassy in a bikini. Oh hell_... Of course my body reacted the same way it always did when I thought of Sassy. It was a good thing my shirt covered my crotch. Two more days, and she would be back I reassured myself; I seriously needed to get a grip. It was not just a matter of me missing her, my other problem was that every wolf instinct in me wanted to find her and make sure she was safe. In my mind I knew that she was not doing anything dangerous, and Sassy was a woman who could deal with any situation but I could not subdue my wolf instincts - I needed to be near her so that I could protect her. At first I had been impressed with how well Quil had handled being separated from Claire but then I realized that he would run back to see her almost every weekend. This imprinting business was tricky at times, especially since these days you could not always be around your mate.

There were a great many people walking towards a building across the green, based on the fact that they all looked relatively young and nervous it looked like all I had to do was follow them to my destination. It was amazing that this place was in the middle of the city, with the lush green grass and the large trees you could almost pretend you were out in the wilderness. Almost was the key word here, the sweet smell of recently cut grass was overpowered by the bitter scent of car exhaust. With my enhance hearing I could hear the rumbling of traffic all around me and it was starting to get to me - I never knew I was such a country boy. Phil's house was outside one of the suburbs of Seattle, the forest that surrounded the house muffled most sounds of civilization - I had gotten used to the peace and quiet and this constant noise was not helping soothe my nerves. Taking a deep breath, and ignoring the smells around me, I followed the steady foot traffic.

"Gee, does anyone know the right way to go?" the speaker was laying on the sarcasm rather thick. I could not help but chuckle a little under my breath, someone had gone overboard in making sure we could find our way. Every ten yards or so there was another sign with a large arrow, pointing the way to freshman orientation.

I followed the crowd of people through the double doors, where we were greeted with more signs. Wow someone's family must be in the printing business - they killed at least half a forest worth of trees for these signs. All around me people were pouring into the building that housed the auditorium, it was starting to make me feel a little claustrophobic. I had never been around this many people in my entire life, and supposedly this was not even the entire group of freshman. How was a small town werewolf supposed to deal with crowds this big?

I was not the first Clearwater to attend the school, my sister Leah was halfway through her bachelors degree in history. The other members of my pack were also going here; so it was not like I would be alone in this place. Then why did I suddenly feel all alone?

I really missed Sassy, too bad she could not be here with me. But it was highly doubtful that they would allow my non-girlfriend to attend orientation with me. Two more days: I thought to myself, that was how much longer I would have to hold out.

I mean this was just freshman orientation, it was not such a big deal. The sheer number people around me was starting to be overwhelming, I could smell the nervous sweat and excitement coming off their bodies along with all the perfume and cologne they decided to bathe in this morning. My breath was coming in quick short bursts which was drawing in more of the smells around me, this added to the feeling of nausea. If I had not been so close to having a panic attack it would have been funny to see how wide of a berth everyone gave me, it could have been that the humans could sense that I was not quite normal or maybe it was the six foot six feet of pure muscle. Whatever the reason, everyone seemed to make sure that they did not jostle me as they tried to line up in the right order.

I found the 'A-E' line and stood behind a group of girls, since I came up behind them I made sure not to stand too close to them so I would not scare the crap out of them if they turned around to look behind them. They were chattering nervously to each other, with the wolf hearing I could of course hear their entire conversation.

"Oh my god Jenna, this is so exciting. I can't believe I actually met someone I knew here," said the girl with the long black hair pulled into a strange looking ponytail.

"Like yeah Lu, you have no idea how glad I am to see you. I never realized there were so many people," the girl who I assumed was Jenna replied. She nervously pushed her hands through her short brown hair and adjusted her purse strap - that was when she noticed me behind her. She paused for a second, her mouth opening in a small 'O' and her eyes became impossibly wide as she noticed my height and width.

I had become used to this reaction from humans in the past few weeks, pretty much ever since I left the Rez this is how people looked at me - like something to be scared of. It still made me uncomfortable that people thought I might harm them, especially since it was my job to protect them from things that go bump in the night. Quil told me not to worry about it, people would start to treat me normally once they got to know me a little better. I guess everyone on the Rez had been used to the extra large boys running around and I did not stick out like a sore thumb.

"Oh wow, do you think he is on the football team?" I heard Jeanne ask in a tone of awe. I did not bother listening to her friend's reply.

I smiled a little, they should see how I played football: vampires vs werewolves. Let me tell you it got pretty ugly, especially since Phil had taught us how to play rugby. That man had some pretty nasty tricks up his sleeves, at first we had tried to take it easy on him seeing as he was not as unbreakable as a vampire or as quick to heal as a werewolf but we soon found out that we could not touch him.

Though nothing, and I mean nothing in this universe could compare to how much fun it was when Sassy joined us to play. Normally she was all buttoned up in her power suits and high heels, but for rugby she put on shorts and a sports bra - it was almost as good as her in a bikini - sadly I had not seen her in a swimsuit since our Hawaii trip. Was it wrong to be hoping that global warming would kick in and we would all be required to run around in shorts? The first time she played with us I was so distracted that Emmett managed to tackle me and break my arm. Normally I would have been upset that I had to sit out of the game to let my arm heal but this time it was completely worth it. I got to sit there and do nothing but watch my mate in action, not even Esme calling me inside with the offering of food had been able to move me from my spot next to the field.

Damn my jeans were getting a little tight just thinking about that, I seriously needed to go jack off again - but what else was I supposed to do? The girl of my dreams was keeping things completely platonic and I wanted her so, so badly. I took a deep breath to try to control myself, this really was not the time to get worked up but at least I had forgotten about being nervous for a minute. That was when I smelt it, vampire. _Shit, shit, shit._ My heart started to thud in place and I tried to scope out the crowd without looking conspicuous.

I noticed her husband first, since he was the taller of the two and the funny colored hair kind of stood out in the crowd. A huge smile split my mouth as I raised a hand to wave at them. Bella noticed me as well and gracefully walked over before throwing herself in my arms.

"Seth, how is my favorite little brother?" she asked with a laugh. I had not seen her in a couple of months, they had been doing some stuff on the island.

I laughed at her little brother comment as I gave her a big squeeze, "I am good, what are you doing here?" I wrinkled my nose at the smell of vampire, it really was overpowering this close to her.

"Freshman orientation, better late than never," she told me with a small laugh. She had taken a couple of years off between high school and college to get married, have a kid, and to get used to being a newborn vampire. Her eyes were now the golden color of the rest of the Cullen family, indicating their 'vegetarian' diet of animals instead of people.

"So do you know your major yet?" I asked her as her husband joined us at a slower pace than his enthusiastic wife. I stopped hugging her so that I could shake his hand, "Edward," I greeted him with a nod followed by a fist bump.

"I am thinking along the lines of literature, but I am still undecided," Bella told me with a laugh. It was always good to be around Bella, happiness was just pouring out of her these days - I was glad, she was a kind person and deserved to be happy.

We caught up on old times as we approached the registration table, it made me feel a lot better that I knew someone in the crowd - the strong smell of vampire was almost welcome because it helped block out all the other perfumes. We found seats together at the back of the auditorium and settled down for a long series of welcome to college lectures.

"Are they always this boring?" I asked Edward after the fifth person spoke about how glad they were that we had joined the University of Washington family. Edward just rolled his eyes at me, while Bella gave me a small push. "What?" I asked defensively, "This is my first time through college unlike some people," I tried to keep my words quiet so that others would not overhear our conversation.

"This is actually better than it used to be," Edward muttered with a small smile, "but wait till you get to do the small group stuff...icebreakers," he said the last word with a great deal of distaste.

The welcoming speeches took a good hour, then we were divided into 'small groups'. Before we split up, Bella offered me a ride home in the 'sexy volvo'; I took her up on the offer and shot a text message off to Leah to tell her not to worry about picking me up tonight.

I located my group of 'yellow dots' gathering around an orientation group leader wearing a t-shirt that matched the bright yellow circle on the corner of our name tags. "All right guys, let us all gather together so that I can get a headcount," our small group leader told us in a very hyper voice, a huge smile on her face.

"Someone needs to cut back on the coffee," I muttered under my breath.

"I think there is more than coffee involved in her overly happy mood," the guy standing next to me replied with a small laugh. He looked over at me and put out his hand, "Tom," he told me simply. His name tag said 'Thomas'.

"Seth," I told him shaking his hand while making sure I did not squeeze too hard. It would not be a good think to break all the bones in his hand, that would not make a good first impression.

"Hi my name is Sara, and I will be your small group leader for the next two days of orientation. If you have any questions please feel free to interrupt me, I tend to ramble on so don't worry about trying to wait for me to pause before asking a question," she seemed a little too excited about this whole thing. I mean it was only freshman orientation. "Follow me so that we can find a quiet corner so we can get to know each other."

"Yippee," came a sarcastic rumble from Tom.

"Oh I see someone is not excited about this, don't worry by the time it is all over you will be." She told him with a smile, "I will make sure of it." There was a little too much determination in her voice, it was kind of scary.

"You had better learn to fake excited quick if you know what is good for you," I told Tom when crack chipmunk turned away from us.

"Yeah, no kidding," Tom made some gestures that I assumed was supposed to look like a cheerleader waving around her pompons but I could have been wrong - he could have been having a small seizure.

Sara found us a small room, and we were all directed to pull chairs around in a circle; the nervousness that had returned once I was away from Bella and Edward diminished a little as we left the large crowd behind us. I could handle the twelve or so people that were in the room with me.

Sara went on to introduce herself, again. That was when she began with what she called 'icebreakers'; Edward had implied that it would be torture but I have to admit it was kind of fun. I had lived a fairly sheltered life on the Rez, pretty much the only outsiders I had met were the ones that were trying to kill me - or Phil's family but they were not human so they did not really count. It was kind of neat to meet 'normal' people that were around my age, not that things were not all that normal on the Rez. Other than the couple of us that turned into wolves when we lost our tempers, things were pretty much the same as everywhere else - avoiding doing homework, sneaking out at night, people dating and breaking up in the middle of the cafeteria over a small issue.

Sara got us to reveal the normal stuff, like our names, where we were from and our age.

"Seriously, you are seventeen?" Aliah the girl from Texas had asked incredulously. Several boys seemed to be very interested in her, she was what you might call very 'developed' for an eighteen year old.

"Yeah I get that a lot, I hit a growth spurt a few years back. Most people think I am a lot older." It was imperative that I downplay this as much as possible and try to blend in. "But I turn eighteen in a couple of months."

"It must be great, you can probably buy beer without a fake ID." Mark, the guy who was wanting to be a journalist looked at me with awe.

"Well on that note this would be a good time to go into the rules about drugs and alcohol on campus," Sara interrupted and everyone groaned in misery. We all gave Mark a dirty look as Sara went through what academic probation was.

After a few more icebreakers she took us on a tour of the major places on campus. We saw the main library, one of the many computer labs, as well as the student union building. She also went into some of the perks that we would get with our student IDs. My nervousness was starting to increase again, holy crap this was a large campus.

"So..Seth, how are you liking Seattle?" Gabriella asked me in an overly breathy voice. She was from a small town in Eastern Washington and was thinking about getting her degree in psychology.

I was getting concerned had those stairs made her short of breath? I was getting ready to ask her if she was alright when I noticed that she bending over and pressing her arms together against her chest. Was I supposed to look down her low cut shirt? Unfortunately for Gabriella I was not going to insult my mate like that. I might not be getting any from Sassy but I knew who I belonged to and I was not going to disrespect her by staring at the chest of another girl. It also helped that Gabriella was just a girl while Sassy was a woman with all the curves in all the right places.

I really needed to stop thinking of her body or I would get another erection and give the girl standing in front of me the wrong impression. I did not want to lead anyone on, but there was no way I could tell her I was already taken - as far as most people were concerned Sassy and I hang out together because my sister and her cousin were dating.

"Seattle is nice, but I have been here several times before. My sister lives here now, and I spent a great deal of time with her this past summer." I kept my features neutral as I looked straight in her eyes and nowhere else. I was hoping she would notice that her chest was not that interesting to me.

Fortunately our presence was required back in the auditorium for more talking, and we followed Sara back into the large crowd. I was prepared to make my escape but Gabriella was too quick, as soon as we got to the main auditorium she stopped my escape.

"Come sit by us Seth," she cooed as she placed her hands on my forearm. "Wow you really do have big muscles," she told me while squeezing my arm.

I tried to politely and delicately to extricate myself from her grasp without hurting her, but she seemed determined to hold on. I looked around in a panic, how was I supposed to tell her I did not want her touching me without hurting her feelings? A quick sweep of my surrounding showed me that Edward was approaching, I guess he heard my mental appeal for help.

"Hello, would you mind if I borrowed Seth for a minute?" he spoke smoothly as he came up to us.

"What? Oh you know Seth!" Gabriella looked at Edward while almost drooling. I guess she fell for the whole predator allure that he seemed to constantly project. She almost immediately let go of my arm, Edward was much more impressive than I was.

"Hi Edward, does your _wife _need me for anything?" I made sure to emphasize the word wife, it would be cruel to lead Gabriella on and I did not want Bella freaking out and kicking her ass. Bella might be a sweet girl but she had a nasty tempter and she was very protective of her husband.

Edward mumbled something that I could not understand in my direction but it was a good enough excuse for me to head out and leave with him. The good manners that had been drilled into me took over and I politely said goodbye to Gabriella before following Edward towards the back of the room. Bella was waiting for us near one of the exit signs looking a little bit frazzled. I guess the crowds were getting to her as well.

"Do you think they will need me for anything else?" The novelty of meeting new people had worn off and the claustrophobia had returned. I really needed to get out of here, preferably somewhere quiet and green. There were too many people now for them to avoid touching me and people kept bumping into us increasing the feeling of being surrounded.

"I think they are serving some sort of food in a few hours, but otherwise you are done for the afternoon if you want to sneak out." Edward told me quietly, he must have noticed the tenor of my thoughts.

"You were wrong the icebreakers were somewhat fun, but all these people are bothering me. I don't want to make you leave early if you want to stay I will just wait outside for you. Or I can call my sister." Hell at this point I was willing to start walking.

"No let us all go, this in not exactly a pleasant place to be for us either," Bella agreed with a strained smile.

We all walked out of the building and the fresh scent of rain hit me, I took a deep breath, "wow that is really nice." It had been drizzling a little bit during the tour of campus but now it had increased to larger drops and you could actually call it rain at this point.

I had only mumbled it under my breath but of course the two vampires next to me heard. "I have to agree the smell of that many people was starting to get to me, and I am the one that is supposed to have super control." Bella gave a little laugh, that had been the joke when she first became a vampire - her ability to control her thirst was her vampire superpower.

Edward led the way to where he had parked his car but we were not in too much of a hurry to get away now that the crowds were gone. Instead we continued to talk about various topics, Edward seemed eager to join us for the next rugby game. "We might have to have one this weekend if everyone is free. As soon as school starts it gets harder to plan these things," he and Bella were the only members of the family that had not played with us yet.

"So why did you graduate early? It must have taken a great deal of effort." Bella teased me as we walked across the lawn. It was filled with a couple of people despite the rain, they were dressed a lot more like I expected. Cut off jeans and the names of various local bands that I recognized from having seen other members of my pack wearing them a few of them were wearing raincoats but most did not seem to be bothered by the shower. This is what college kids were supposed to look like, I wondered how long it would take the freshman class to start looking like that.

"Most of them finally stop dressing like they are in high school by the spring semester, but some of them don't stop acting like they are still in high school until well into their junior year." Edward's tone was serious but there was a small upward lift to his lips.

As we walked towards one of the parking lots I noticed Edward's familiar silver volvo almost right away but his familiar car was not what caught and held my attention. In the space next to it was a sleek, black Lexus, one that I knew well - I had even gotten to drive it a couple of times.

"Hmmm I don't think we will be giving him a ride Edward," I heard Bella say in a teasing voice. I did not wait for his reply instead I picked up the pace, going as fast as possible without drawing too much attention to myself. She must have seen my approach because the car door opened and out stepped Sassy.

I did not hesitate, my long legs quickly ate up the distance between us. I was walking so quickly that I was almost jogging to reach her. I slowed down enough so as not to plow into her, I wrapped my hands around her narrow waist and buried my face in her hair. It was of course pinned up in some elaborated way but that did not detract from the smell. As I inhaled the scent of flowers mixed in with Sassy's own personal smell the stresses that had been piling up on me for the past few weeks melted away. Right now I was not worried about starting my first semester of college, or the sheer number of people that were my future classmates.

"I was going to ask if you missed me, but I think the answer to my question is obvious," she told me quietly as she tried to pull away from me, but my arms would not let her go - I still needed a few more seconds. As much as I wanted a physical relationship with her I also wanted to have a real relationship. Maybe not the conventional dinner and a movie bit but maybe something along the lines of what Phil and Leah had - I wanted to be her equal, I wanted us to share our joys as well as our burdens.

I had finished high school a year early for several reasons, one of them was to get away from the Reservation - the only thing left there was my mother and she was currently involved with Charlie. Not that I resented her for it, in fact I was very glad that she had found someone for herself. The main reason that I wanted to finish school early was Sassy, but these days she was the reason behind most of my actions. I wanted to impress her, to make her see me as a man and part of my plan was to finish school so I would not be seen as the little high school kid that has a crush. Though the whole clinging to her like a baby might not be the best way to convey my adult status.

"Good evening Edward and Bella, did you enjoy your summer?" Sassy asked them when I finally released her.

"Fine thank you," Edward politely replied. "We are of course staying at the house with Esme and Carlisle so feel free to stop by and chat."

"We would ask you now but I think you might be busy," Bella gave me a sly wink before she gracefully opened the car door and slid inside the volvo.

"Are you done for the day?" Sassy asked me with one eyebrow raised. "I got the impression that this would last a few more hours."

"They are not done yet but I am, I think I am missing the lecture on academic dishonesty and plagiarism." I looked down at the schedule I had been handed. "I still have to speak to my advisor and sign up for classes but that is not schedule until tomorrow."

"All right then would you like a ride back home?" She turned and opened the driver side of the door even before I could answer.

"Hey Sassy," I pasted on my best pleading look and pouted my lips - she always fell for the sad puppy dog look. "Can I please drive? Pretty please." I batted my eye-lashes at her, it might have looked silly but Sassy never could resist. I threw in a whining puppy noise for good measure.

She gave me a disapproving look but after a moment of thought and a sigh she started to walk around the car to the passenger side.

"Thanks Sassy, you know I will love you forever for this." I told her with a huge smile when I was seated behind the steering wheel. I knew she was not really upset with me, the small smile on her lips told me she was not bothered by this.

Turning to look at her profile as she wiped a few drops of the rain from her hair, I lost my train of thought. She started talking about food, normally my ears would have perked up at the mention of eating but I was too overwhelmed with the emotions of seeing her - I had missed her so much, the joy of her sitting here beside me safe and sound made me forget all else.

From the moment I saw Sassy I knew she was my destiny and my fate, she would be the only woman that would complete me. I had no choice in the matter, because of the imprinting I would be tied to her forever. While talking to one of the younger members of Sam's pack they had shared their fear of imprinting on the wrong person - what would happen if your mate was selfish or cruel, or worse yet was afraid of the wolf and would not accept you? I was beyond lucky that in that respect, Sassy had already known what I was and had know longer than I had that we belonged together. The only thing that seemed to hold her back was my age, it was not arrogance on my part to assume that she was mine - her family did an imprinting of sorts as well, but that was not my only reason for being certain. There was no one else that could make her smile like I could, when happiness seemed to be radiating out of her; I was the only one that could make her feel that way.

Just like now, it was subtle and some people might miss it completely but there was just something about the way the corner of her lips turned upwards with her brown eyes shinning like stars. Her soft looking pink lips were very distracting, it seemed impossible to look away from them. The rain had started to fall a little harder, the individual drops of water had congealed into a film that blurred the window. The outside world faded away as I continued to look at those lips, I could not tell if it was the wolf or the man in me but there was nothing I wanted more right now than to taste those lips.

In a gesture that smacked of nerves Sassy took a deep breath, I watched in utter fascination as the tip of her small tongue darted out to moisten her lips. With no thought regarding the consequences of my actions I threw caution to the wind, leaning over I pressed my lips against hers.

I had imagined this moment a thousand, no a million times in the past and all my dreams had fallen short of reality - this was heaven on earth. My eyes closed of their own accord, not seeming to understand that I wanted to remember every look, taste and touch. This was the first time that I had tasted my mate's lips, they were soft and pillowy easily giving way when I pressed closer to her. My hand seemed to have a mind of its own as it reached around and pulled her head near to mine, I pressed in a little closer to her as I was feeling a little more confident - she had not pushed me away yet.

I decided to try something else, in fact I needed to get closer to her. Tilting my head so that I could better fit our lips together I started to press small kisses on the corners of her mouth. Her upper lips were more plump than the lower ones and I tentatively ran my tongue across them feeling their smoothness, she must applied something to her lips because I tasted cherries.

I could run through the forest non-stop for hours without getting winded but I touched her lips once and I was gasping for breath like I had just finished a marathon. I pulled back an inch to catch my breath and to gauge her reaction - had I offended her somehow? I would not lie and say I was sorry, it would have been worth it to me even if she had punched me. I had not let go of her head yet, instead I moved it down to her cheek so that I could softly cup her face as I starred into her eyes that were slowly opening.

Her heart was beating at almost the same furious pace as mine, her face was flushed and a lock of her hair had come loose from her normally perfect hairdo. Her big brown eyes were completely dilated, her irises were small rings of brown around the large black pupil.

"Seth..." she started to say but I did not give her the opportunity to stop me, instead I did what I had been wanting to do almost since the moment I first met her. I plunged both hands into her hair at the same time that I took opportunity of her open mouth to plunge my tongue into her mouth. It might not have been the most polite thing to do but who cared, I was kissing Sassy. With a small growl of pleasure I licked the soft insides of her upper lips. She tasted of something sweet, apples and cinnamon perhaps, along with her own unique taste. I pulled her head closer to me, and crushed our lips together - that was when she let out a whimper. I pulled back immediately, how could I have been so careless? I had hurt my own mate.

"I am sorry, I did not mean to hurt you. Please.." I started just rambling an apology I was so ashamed I could not even look at her face. My hands slid away form her and I covered my face in shame. I caused her pain the first time I kissed her? I had only ever kissed one other girl in my entire life but back then I had not been consumed by this longing.

Cool fingers touched my wrists lightly pulling my hands away from my face. "Seth..." she said with emotion in her voice.

I allowed her to pull my hands away but I would still not look at her, the fingers touched the bottom of my chin slowly guiding it so that I was looking at her again. Almost immediately my eyes zeroed in on her lips, they looked puffy and much more red than they had earlier.

"Seth you did not hurt me," her voice sounded soft and a little out of breath, "you did nothing wrong. In fact you were doing it very right. But next time it might do to ask first?"

Relief coursed through me as I was pulled from the depths of self-loathing and back into happiness beyond description. She had said I had not hurt her, in fact she had practically told me she liked it. _Hey Seth pay attention, she had said next time_.

Next time, that is all I needed to know. I rotated my body the best I could to face her squarely. "Josefine, would you like me to kiss you?" I asked in a formal tone.

"Seth people will say..." she started to talk but I would not allow her to not answer the question.

"That is not what I asked," I interrupted filled with more self confidence than an almost eighteen year old virgin could possibly posses.

She closed her eyes for a moment before taking a deep breath and blowing it out slowly, "yes I would like you to kiss me," her voice was still quiet, I started to lean towards her but she put two fingers up to my lips to stop me, "but that is as far as we are going, a kiss."

I kissed the two fingers delicately before I wrapped my own fingers around her wrist and pulled her hand away from my mouth but not before I placed small kiss on the inside of her wrist. She did not put up much resistance as I moved her hand, I could see that her cheeks were still a bright red and she a wide smile split her face.

I leaned towards her and closed my eyes before making contact, this heightened all my other senses. I was wrapped up in her flowery scent, it was more intoxicating than the flowers of Hawaii. This flower was mine, and she would be so forever - I just had to convince her that it should happen sooner than later.

After the initial press of our mouth together I pressed small delicate kisses around her lips - even though she had told me that I had not hurt her it would be better if I was more careful. After outlining her lips with kisses I moved away from her mouth and kissed along her jaw until I found the spot behind her ear that seemed to smell especially good, from the increasing speed of her heartbeats I was going to assume she liked it as well. I spent some time sitting there doing nothing but rubbing my nose against the small hairs behind her ear and breathing in her scent.

She finally got impatient with me because she pushed her hands through my short hair and pulled my head so that our lips were against each other.

"Open your mouth Seth," she whispered against my lips, her soft breath was almost a caress in itself. I was so distracted that I did not immediately obey her command. However as soon as I did she lightly bit my upper lip, I gasped in pleasure and that was when she plunged her tongue fully into my mouth. The sensation of her tongue rubbing against mine made my head swim with ecstasy, I pushed my own tongue against hers and tried to mimic the action. I moved my tongue around hers rubbing it this way and that, learning what felt good and what made her moan. At one point she wrapped her lips around my invading tongue and sucked on it, that was when I realized what she was doing - teaching me the different ways to kiss and allowing me to figure out what I liked. She had found a more than willing pupil, this was only about kissing as the console in the middle of the seats prevented me from pulling her against my body.

I don't know how long we were in the car, the falling rain keeping the outside world from seeing this private moment. Finally I had to stop to catch my breath, I reluctantly pulled away from her. My hands had found their way into her hair again and I had been unconsciously running my fingers through her soft curls. Her hands had been busy as well, pulling and pushing my head in the direction she wanted as she taught me to kiss. She was breathing almost as hard as I was, the blush on her cheeks had extended all the way across her face and down her neck - for a moment I wondered how far down that blush would go. Her beautiful lips looked swollen and bruised, and I could not help but feel proud - I had been the one who kissed her that thoroughly. I had been the one that had messed up her hair to the point that it was falling in large chunks around her shoulders.

All of a sudden a large curl tumbled down and fell across her face. Sassy seemed surprised by the disarray and immediately set about trying to fix it. Sadly it seemed kissing time was over.


	4. College

Disclaimer: I don't own the wolves or vampires, those belong to SM.

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Chapter 4: College

Much to my sorrow there was no repeat of the kiss - I would later kick myself for allowing Sassy to fix her hair. She used the time to reassemble her shield, we were back to friendly mode by the time the last piece of hair was pinned up again. I started the car and carefully followed the GPS to the right place to pick up dinner; we had agreed on Thai food and picked it up on the way home. I concentrated on driving, the rain continued to fall steadily making the roads a little more dangerous and it was getting close to rush hour so there were increased number of cars out as everyone hurried home. I had to be extra careful not to get into an accident, Sassy could not heal like I could and there was no way I would ever endanger my mate.

We ate our food in relative silence in front of the TV watching some sort of sci-fi show that Angus had picked. The rest of the night we were never alone, someone was always in hearing distance and at this point I did not feel comfortable talking about it with an audience. My night was spent contemplating our kiss and as a consequence of those thoughts trying to hide my body's responses. Sassy had to have known my dilemma, she had far more experience than I did. She seemed to be deep in thought, a little line appeared between her eyebrows as she looked at the television without actually seeing what was on the screen. I would have given a great deal to have Edward's mind reading ability, just to know what was going on in her head. A few times I opened my mouth and took a deep breath in preparation to question her but I changed my mind - as determined as I was to talk about it with Sassy, I also wanted to be a gentleman and not kiss and tell the whole household.

It was nearly midnight when I got to bed that night, the long shower where I took care of my raging erection did not help settle my mind. I stayed up far longer than I should have and was woken up by a blaring alarm the next morning.

Orientation had started in the afternoon yesterday but now it would begin at eight in the morning. I quickly threw on some clothes, and went to hunt down some breakfast. It was Phil's turn to cook the dinners this week and he had gone overboard and made an awesome breakfast casserole. "What is that?" I asked, drool practically filling my mouth as I lifted the foil covering the large dish.

"French toast, with like all sorts of other things on it," my sister told me from the living room. She had papers scattered all around the coffee table, it looked like the notes from her summer research project. She was the only one awake this morning, everyone else was either gone or still asleep. I guess they were getting in a few more days of sleeping in before classes began again. I know Jacob had complained that his engineering professors were old dicks who could only have class first thing in the morning; Jake was signed up for eight o'clock classes ever day of the week. I would obtain my schedule today, hopefully I would get to sleep sometimes.

"That looks fun," I told her while helping myself to a generous portion of the food.

"Yeah Dr. Gardner wants me to write a short twenty page summary," she was not even bothering to hide her disgust with the project. "Freaking twenty pages with an introduction to what the goal of my research is and a conclusion about my findings," she let out a frustrated growl. "I mean seriously these are stories and songs about legends. There are no conclusions to be made, unless it is along the lines that one tribe is descendent from badgers while another prefers the bear as their spirit animal. Maybe I can surmise that they are able to shape shift into badgers if an enemy tribe threatens them."

"I thought you liked that stuff," she had seemed very excited about it before, "oh my god this food is sooo good. The guys had better wake up soon or I will eat it all." I scooped a huge mouthful up on my fork. It was a good thing that Leah was going to marry Phil because that would mean I would get to enjoy his cooking for a long, long time.

"I do like talking to people and hearing about their legends, what I don't like is writing about it," she let out a frustrated sigh. "Don't worry about eating it all, my man is the best. He has another pan of the stuff in the oven so that it will stay warm."

"Better marry him quick, before I decide to steal him away from you," I teased her with a smile.

"You are in a good mood," she finally looked up from her notes, "does it have anything with Sassy being back?"

"Or I could be so excited about orientation, another round of lectures about teenage drinking, or maybe we have moved unto the exciting subject of the writing center being able to grammar check your papers before you turn them in," I told her while getting up to put more food on my plate.

"Before I forget, Edward called this morning, they will be giving you a ride this morning and should be here in about ten minutes. So you had better hurry it up." My sister gave me a small, knowing smirk. "So how is Sassy?"

She was not going to be easily distracted from the topic of my mate. I used the excuse that my mouth was full of food, and dug into my food with even greater zeal. Hopefully she would drop the subject, but from the look in her eyes I could tell that she was not done teasing me. What would my sister do when it came out that I had made out with Sassy? I could just imagine the amount of teasing that would be thrown my way.

Edward was nothing but punctual, on the dot at seven thirty the silver volvo pulled up in front of the house. Was he this good at timing things or had he stopped the car and let it idle by the side of the road for a few minutes so her could get it perfect? I said my goodbyes to Leah and wished her good luck with her project before heading out to the car.

Bella chatted quietly about the classes she was thinking of taking, she was disappointed that some of the classes she was interested in had prerequisites. Edward seemed a little more jaded about the experience but he did not say much on the topic - instead he smiled indulgently at his wife as he sped towards the campus.

We were there in record time, and Edward parked in the exact same place as he had yesterday. "Are you claiming this spot for yourself?" I asked him teasingly as we got out of the car.

"Something like that," he gave me a wide smile, "so are you ready to have some fun?" If I did not know better I would have sworn his enthusiasm was genuine.

"Your resemblance to Sara my orientation leader is uncanny, have you thought about that career path?" I asked him. _The theater might work for you, and you are pretty enough to play a girl if necessary. _I found it best to send some of my snarky comments to him via my thoughts. They had more of an impact that way, and my sterling reputation as a good boy remained solid.

"Are you looking forward to spending some quality time with Gabriella?" Bella asked with a laugh.

"Who is Gabriella?" I asked suddenly confused. Had I met someone named that yesterday? I got a bad feeling, that must have been the girl that could not take no for an answer. "You had better come rescue me from her if she does it again."

"Why don't you ask your girlfriend to do it?" Bella asked in a teasing voice.

"Because she is not my girlfriend, " I explained with a sigh, even I could hear the regret in my voice. _At least not yet_, I added in my mind before realizing I was standing next to a mindreader. I tried to clear my mind, I did not want Edward to see what I did last night...oh crap think of something else quickly, Sassy in a bikini. All right that was a bad plan, think of something else, oh yes my mother's lecture on safe sex should suffice. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Edward cringing, I guess the memory of my mother teaching me how to put a condom on a banana bothered him as well. That afternoon had ranked among the most embarrassing moments in my life.

Meanwhile Bella was still laughing. I was glad that she thought some girl making me uncomfortable by flirting with me was amusing. On the car ride over I texted Sassy wondering where she was. My phone finally beeped with her reply. _Don't worry Seth I am still in Seattle, how late are you staying at orientation? Do you want to have a late lunch with me?_

I sent my quick reply asking her to text me when she was done, since she had finished up early in China she did not have that much to do until she started in on her next project. Right now everything was 'simmering nicely' so nothing required her immediate attention. It was always like this after she would finish a project, a few days of taking it easy before she jumped back into her normally insane work hours.

Last night we had talked about spending some afternoons hitting up the tourist places around Seattle before I started school next Monday. We planned on visiting places like the Space needle, though she had thrown me a curveball when she mentioned the symphony - as much as my sister was into classical music, I still avoided it like the plague. I might not listen to it for my sister but I would most certainly have no way to get out of it if my mate asked.

Orientation would have been all right, if I was not counting down the hours until I could see Sassy again. Today I was not able to get away because I had to meet with my advisor and sign up for classes. We were divided up into the small orientation groups yet again. Gabriella was there, and I am pretty sure she had bathed in a tub of perfume - or at least I assumed it was supposed to be perfume. At this point she made vampires smell good, I tried not to gag when she leaned in close to me.

"I saw that you skipped out early last night," I had made my way closer to Tom, hoping he would shield me from the smell. He was in a good mood, "what we were not good enough for you?"

"My ride was leaving early, so I went and hung out with friends." I told him with a smile, he seemed like a nice enough guy and more importantly he did not bathe cologne. Was it bad that I was picking friends based on how they smelled?

"Speaking of friends, who was that hot girl you were with last night?" he asked while wagging her eyebrows, "and can I have her phone number?"

"Which one?" I asked in a panicked voice, hopefully he had not seen me with Sassy. As much as I would like to shout to the world that Sassy was mine it really would not be the best thing to do at this time.

"Which one? You don't know which hot girl you were hanging out with you? How many hot girls do you know?" He gave me a little laugh while he punched me on the shoulder, or at least I think it was supposed to be a punch - to me it felt more like a light tap.

I laughed along with him, it was funny if I thought about it. "For your information I know several pretty girls, the only problem is I am either related to them or they are married."

"Bummer, so the brunette with the hair all the way down her back?" He got a far away look on his face.

"Married, and kind of my sister," I finally figured out that he was talking about Bella. "Very happily married to her high school sweetheart."

"She looked a little too pale to be your sister." He paused for a second a confused look appeared on his face, "how some someone sort of be you sister?"

I was about to explain about my mom dating her father but we were interrupted by our fearless orientation leader Sara, we were going to go see another lecture. This time on how to properly use the computer system to register for classes as well as keep up with classroom materials. Since we were trying to be a green school they tried to make as much material as possible available online so that we would not have to print it out. She instructed us to all sit together but I managed to dodge Gabriella and her batting eyelashes and found Bella and Edward instead.

"Just a few more hours love," I heard Edward murmur into Bella's ear while he slowly rubbed her back. I was wondering if she was having a hard time dealing with all the people in the large auditorium.

"How is my favorite big sister doing?" I asked her as I attempted to bump her with my shoulder. When she was still human the small tap would have probably knocked her off her feet, but now she remained as still as a rock.

"Oh, favorite sister you say? I am going to have to tell Leah about this," she gave me a weak smile.

"Yeah it will be good for her to have some competition, she has been seriously neglecting her big sister duties." I gave Bella my biggest smile and watched as the small lines of tension that had been around her eyes softened a little. She was not completely relaxed, that would have been a bad thing with all these humans around, but she was not as stressed looking as before. Over her head I watched as Edward gave me a nod of thanks. _Not a problem, I really do think of her as another sister. Helping her is my pleasure._

Instead of listening to the talk, we spent some time going over our plans. I told Edward he did not need to drive me home today, Sassy was coming to pick me up.

"Sassy?" he gave me a small knowing smile, I guess my thoughts had not been completely clean this morning.

"Yeah Sassy, you know tall, gorgeous, and will probably kick your ass if she finds out you were picking on me?" I gave him a knowing look. It was comforting to know that few things could take down my girl.

"From what I heard Sassy teases you more than anyone else. Who is going to protect you from her?" Edward's smile widened as he spoke and he put some extra emphasis on the word tease.

I mentally crossed my eyes and stuck my tongue out at Edward, and looked towards the front of the auditorium. I tried my best to pay attention to the speaker but for the life of me I could not have told you what she was talking about. Thoughts of Sassy had kept my mind occupied but now as I looked around the room the number of people was starting to bother me again. It felt like the walls were starting to close in on me, this reaction was ridiculous but there was nothing I could do to stop the pounding of my heart.

"Think of something else, think of being somewhere else," Edward mumbled under his breath. I guess he must have heard my panicky thoughts.

So instead of listening to the person speaking I let my mind wander to Sassy - I had never met a woman like her before, having kissed her it had become more and more apparent that she was truly unique. She was a mixture of contradictions, but there was no other way I would want her. Soft and hard. Stubborn but willing to compromise. Sweet but with a core of steel; she would get the job done no matter what. I spent the rest of the hour fantasizing about Sassy, I tried to keep the visions of Sassy in a bikini or with her hair down to a minimum so that Edward would not be bothered by them.

It was past noon when I finally got to meet with my advisor, we spent five minutes on deciding my classes. Since I was technically undeclared Dr. Andres, a literature professor, would be my advisor until I declared a major. We signed up for the usual classes, I was taking the main ones that could feed into any degree: English, Biology, College Algebra and US History.

My advisor was somewhat interesting, she was tall and slender with long dark hair that flowed past her shoulders. It looked like her hair had a mind of its own and refused to be tamed, but I guess that matched the professor's personality. She was rather loud, easily excited, and very foreign. Her accent made her a little hard to understand at times but her wild hand gesticulations helped with translation. Everything was done on the computer at her desk, I had been used to the tons of paper that we got in high school. But I guess U of W was determined to keeps its green status, I think it was rated one of the most green schools in the nation.

I finally left the building and headed to where Edward had parked his car, it would be a good place to tell Sassy to come pick me up. After sending her a short text to tell her I was done I sat down on one of the unoccupied picnic tables and waited. I was good at waiting, I have had a great deal of practice in the past few years.

Sassy and I spent the rest of the week going out and about, usually in places with large crowds. She told me she was trying to get me used to the large groups, the only problem with her plan that I was fine no matter what the situation so long as she was with me. Somehow I doubted that she would be willing to follow me to class everyday, though I would certainly not complain if she wanted to join me in school.

"Don't worry people show up the first week of class but halfway through the semester nearly half of them will be skipping," Phila, the only one of the family members who was currently teaching college tried to reassure me Sunday evening.

"So all I have to do is make it past October?" I asked her with a smile.

"Pretty much and then once you get out of the first set of freshman courses the class sizes will diminish by a great deal." Everyone who lived in the house had gathered together for dinner, plans were being made and schedules compared to see the most efficient way to carpool.

"Don't worry about it Seth, you will get used to it. Your least favorite sister will be just a text message away if you need me." Leah told me with a fake glare.

"Oh yeah, did Bella tell you about that?" I asked with a huge smile, for a moment I worried that Leah's feelings had been hurt but then I noticed her lips quivering like she was trying to fight a smile.

"Yeah the bitch had the audacity to rub it in my face the other day," Leah continued to grumble. Phil patted my sister on the back in a consoling way for about a minute before he started to roar with laughter; she soon joined in with the rest of us.

"Don't worry I was trying to make her feel better, your boyfriend is a way better cook than her husband." I kept my face serious for only a second.

"You are such a jerk," Leah punched me on the shoulder.

Much too soon school started, this was not high school anymore and they did not treat us with kid gloves. The first day I was slammed with insane amounts of reading and homework. Since we did not have all that much time in the classroom they made us do most of our learning on our own.

Things got interesting the first day of my biology lab, I was in full panic mode as more and more people slowly started trickling into the large room. There were all sorts of unidentifiable things in glass jars filling the shelves that lined all but one side of the room. A strong smell of disinfectant and cleaning products permeated the room but underneath it all was the unmistakable scent of decay and what I assumed to be some sort of chemical that was meant to preserve the specimens.

I was sitting in the back of the room, close to the door in the back. All I had to do was go out the door, walk down the hall, and there were a set of stairs that would lead me down to freedom - aka outside. I was going through my escape plans when I heard the unmistakable sound of cruel laughter from the front of the room.

"Hey Fatty, why don't you go sit somewhere else?" I heard the sound of a taunting boy, his voice sounded somewhat familiar and I frowned as I tried to place the voice. I looked up to find the source and almost immediately recognized the boy with the Ozzy shirt, him and his friends were the ones who had speculated on my relationship with Leah when she had dropped me off the other night. This time he was with another guy I did not recognize from the other night, they were standing over a girl sitting down at a lab table near the front of the class.

"Yeah, we want to save this for a hot chick. I want something pretty to look at if I have to stay here for three hours." Ozzy shirt's friend added with a cruel smirk.

Before I even knew it I was walking towards the front of the room, a very uncharacteristic dark glare on my face. The girl they were picking on was not by any means fat, maybe a little bit overweight but from the look on her face they had hit a sore point. Regardless of her looks, it did not give them the right to mistreat her.

The wolf skills allowed me to move with steps so quiet that humans could not hear me, sneaking up and standing right behind the two jerks without them noticing was effortless. The girl they were teasing saw me and I watched as her eyes got big and fearful - I felt a moment of guilt for scaring her but then I quickly turned my concentration back to her tormentors.

I put on my best game face, something like the one Phil used at times, and cleared my throat. Normally I was not one for intimidation but the current situation seemed to call for it.

Ozzy shirt gave a little start at the noise before turning to me, "what the fuck..." I got the impression that he was annoyed that someone had dared interrupt his games but then he saw my size.

It took everything in me to keep the scowl on my face and not laugh at their identical expression, despite the fact that they did not look at all related their faces expressed a similar combination of awe and fear.

All of a sudden they lost interest in picking on the girl; I waited patiently my expression never wavering from the dark glare. After calculating out their chances of taking me on they wisely decided that retreat was the best option, but not before one of them mumbled something derogatory about my skin color under their breath. Since I wanted to avoid a physical confrontation I chose to ignore that, especially if I did not want to be kicked out of school the first week for starting a fight.

Once the two cowards had retreated to their own table I gave a nod and a smile to the girl they had been picking on, it was an attempt to remove the fear from her eyes. Heading back to my own seat I noticed that there were several people in the vicinity that were smiling at me and giving me a thumbs up, though they seemed a little hesitant about it. I could not tell if they were afraid of me or of the possible retaliation from the two fuming boys that were giving me dark looks from their lab table.

One thing bothered me: if these people sitting at the lab tables around the girl saw me intervene, then why the heck did they not do something about it before I walked all the way to the front of the room? People were strange, they knew what the right thing to do was but then they chose not to do it.

I shook my head and pulled out my newly purchased lab manual, all my other books had been borrowed from pack members but this was one that you had to write in so I had to buy a brand new one. I flipped through the crisp pages that smelled strongly of fresh paper and ink, it was while reading about the wonders of bryophytes that I heard someone walk up to me. That was change, in my two morning classes people had given me a wide berth - no one would dare take the seats next to me.

"Hey is this seat taken?" I heard a shy voice ask, looking up to discover the girl who I had 'rescued' just a few minutes ago. She was pointing at the lab table next to mine.

"No go ahead," I told her with a smile, trying to put her at ease. She smelled slightly of baby powder, which was a pleasant change from the usual perfume most girls doused themselves in. It was interesting to note that she did not try to sit down at the table I currently occupied.

She gave me back a shy smile, "hi, I'm Michelle."

"Seth, nice to meet you," my manners kicked in and I stood up to shake her hand like I had been taught.

She seemed hesitant at first but then she finally took my hand, "thanks for standing up to those guys. I thought I was finally getting away from them."

"No big deal," I tried to downplay my role in helping her. All I did was look intimidating and I can do that without even trying.

It seemed that she had gotten over her shyness or fear of me, I could not determine which it had been originally. "I went to high school with them and no one bothered to stand up to them before." A concerned look crossed her face, "but you should be careful, they kind of have a group of friends that roam together."

"Don't worry about it, I have my own pack of friends and they are just as big as I am." I gave her another smile before taking my seat again.

Not that I would not be able to take them all by myself but that might raise a few red flags. Once again I was glad that I had picked the school where my pack went, I know Jake complained about it but most days being part of the pack was awesome - especially Jake's pack, far superior to Sam's pack. Leah looked down upon Sam for some of his leadership methods, but Sam was really trying his best with the group of kids he had to control. I kind of was looking forward to Jared taking over the pack, I think he was a much more mellow leader and now that there were no more new werewolves things could settle down a bit. Less drama would do the pack on the Rez a great deal of good.

The lab was pretty full so Michelle ended up joining me at the table, Tom the guy from orientation was in this lab and joined us as well. The last person to sit down with us was a distinctly goth looking girl named Dani who had gone to school with Michelle.

We did not do much the first day of class, just the paperwork for lab safety as well as filling out some worksheets about the scientific method. For some reason my dating status ended up being the topic of conversation as we waited for further instructions.

"So you are not dating right now?" Dani asked like it was something truly that important.

"Not really I had a relationship in the past that ended badly," I did not need to tell them she ended up getting pregnant by some other guy and accused me of rape. Nor was it a good plan to get into the whole werewolf mating thing.

"You know what you have to do is get back on the wagon," Tom told me while rubbing his chin like a wise man stroking his beard. "And what best way to do that than to do a double date, you could hook me up with one of those hot girls you know."

I ignored his comment, I had gotten back on the wagon of sorts. Actually if dating was the wagon then I was on the fighter jet that went Mach five - well my emotions were, but the status of my relationship with Sassy was not quite there yet.

After a while we asked the TA, a Mr Harper who did not look old enough to be called Mister, if there was anything else to do.

"This is college, you can leave whenever you want to, so long as the work gets done." He gave us a small laugh as he went to help someone else fill out the safety sheets. Our group members did not have to be told twice, we packed up our stuff and after turning in our papers we headed outside to freedom.

It was Sassy's week to cook so I was helping her prepare the meals for the next couple of days. I was telling her about my strange day as we worked side by side in the large kitchen. She was wearing her work clothes but she had taken off her suit jacket, her blouse was meant to be worn underneath a jacket so it was sleeveless and formfitting. I could see the outline of every one of her curves, and my dick wholeheartedly agreed with my mind that the view was awesome.

"I just don't get it, people obviously heard those jerks picking on Michelle and yet they did nothing about it." I shook my head in frustration, wondering how people could just not do something about it.

"People often know the right thing to do but they wont. It is too hard, or there might be consequences to trying to help." Sassy told me in a patient voice, "those boys might have picked a fight."

"No way, they are clearly bullies and backed down as soon as someone stood up to them," I replied, but maybe Sassy was right. Michelle had warned me that those guys traveled in a pack, in a group they would feel invincible and try to pick a fight even with me.

"Your willingness to help someone in need is one of your greatest strength and it may also be your greatest weakness. Please consider the consequence of your actions." She warned me with a kind voice, but I could see the worry in her eyes. I guess I was not the only one who worried about my mate.

"I know, but would you have just stood by and watched a girl get picked on?"

"Of course not, but I am just trying to warn you to be careful. I would not like to see you get hurt by some foolish children."

"Hey they are probably older than I am.. are you calling me a child?" I gave her a fake pout, which she chose to ignore. I suddenly realized that my last comment made me look like a child, especially with the added pout. I quickly tried to reverse that impression. "Speaking of which are we ever going to talk about what happened in the car the other night?" I blurted it out as quickly as possible, the speed was necessary so that my nervousness would not catch up with me and prevent me from being able to speak.

Sassy had been looking down and stirring the small pieces of veggies in the large pan in front of her, she did not even acknowledge my last statement. I wondered if this is how things were going to be, just pretending that it never happened. I swallowed the lump that suddenly formed in my throat, I did not think there was a way to go back to her treating me like a little brother.

Sassy suddenly exhaled before she spoke quietly, "please do not think that I regret doing that."

"Well it certainly feels like you do, especially since you don't bring it up." My honesty made her flinch.

"The only thing I regret is the timing..." she started to explain, but I interrupted - I did not want to hear that she thought I was too young.

"Oh please don't start with the child thing again," I could hear the frustration in my voice.

"That is of course part of it, you are extremely young but that is not what I meant in this instance." She turned off the stove before turning to look straight at me. "You are in a completely new situation. Away from your home, starting school, and having to deal with the added pressure of your wolf instincts."

I gave her a searching look, "what do you mean by that?"

"You were completely freaked out the night we kissed, I am assuming it was a combination of the crowds and starting at a new place." She placed a hand on my shoulder, it was not what I really wanted but it was better than nothing at all. "Despite the fact that you are mated or that we are perfect for each other, a relationships takes work. I do not want to place the added burden of having to deal with us on top of all this."

"So what you are saying is that you don't want to stress me out? Did you consider that not being with you stresses me even more?" It was starting to get a little exasperating that she was the one who set the pace in this relationship.

"I will tell you what, how about we compromise? You will give yourself another month or so to settle into the groove of things and then we will revisit this topic."

"Don't you want to be with me?" I hated that my voice sounded like a whine.

She suddenly frowned, "Seth, have I ever given you the impression that I don't care about you?"

I always knew that she liked me but that was not the point, I wanted her to like me like a man. I told her just that, making her frown again.

"I am aware of your male status, and I constantly have to remind myself of your jailbait status. If you were ten years older I would have..." Sassy's dark skin all of a sudden was covered in a blush.

There was a slamming of the door, and Embry barged into the kitchen through the garage door. "Honey, I'm home, what is for dinner?" he yelled at the top of his lungs. All of a sudden I felt the urge to slam my fist into his face. Sassy turned back to her pan and turned the stove on again. I knew our conversation was over, for now, but I was not going to let it go.

* * *

A/N: This chapter like most of them consists of nothing but fluff, I can add a little extra action in a few chapters if that is what you guys want. I was trying to give Seth a break and let him be "normal" for a little bit. Sorry this took so long, I actually had most of it written but life got in the way and I don't come up with new stuff when sleep deprived.

Thanks everyone who reviewed, I really like them...so feed my habit and write a comment.


	5. Invitations

Chapter 5 - Surprises

"Come on Seth, how long are you going to be asleep?" I heard a voice trying to pull me out of a dream, but I was determined to stay here because my dream was currently occupied by a very scantily clad Sassy. More importantly she was not saying no to me as I quickly pulled her into my arms.

"Let me sleep," I told the annoying person, pulling my comforter over my head trying to shut out the sound and the low light coming from the window.

There was a little tug on my blanked until it no longer covered my face. "Little boy, wake up before you sleep the day away." I heard a sexy rumble in my ear. My mind took a while to recognize the voice, but my body was much quicker in figuring out who was whispering in my ear. A certain thing south of my belly button instantly came to life.

"Sassy," I sat up quickly in bed, making sure that my crotch was covered.

She gave me a big smile, "oh good, I thought I was going to have to drag you to the shower and turn it on. Get dressed we have a long day ahead of us."

"I am uh... going to need to take a shower. So could you give me like twenty minutes?" I did not get up from bed, since my pajamas consisted of boxer shorts Sassy would have gotten a good look as to how happy I was to see her.

"Come on Seth, we need to get going and you don't smell or anything. I swear you are the most fastidious teenage boy I have ever met," she was headed towards the door but as she looked back there was a twinkle in her eye. All she had to do was look over her shoulder and smile at me and my morning erection got even harder.

My face flushed with the knowledge that Sassy knew exactly why I showered so frequently. I narrowed my eyes at her in annoyance but she had disappeared from the room. Turning on the shower I looked down at little Seth, "down boy, we don't have time to play this morning."

Washing my hair I glared at the erection that refused to go down. The embarrassment over the fact that Sassy knew what I was doing should have been enough to make it go away. My mind went from her knowing what I did here to a possible future where she would actually join me in the shower, that was all it took. All my plans to have a quick shower went down the drain.

Sassy was in the living room reading something for work, I cleared my throat to let her know I was there and ready to go. _Though quite frankly you were ready to go as soon as you heard her whispering in your ear._

"Oh Seth, all dressed and everything. Breakfast is ready for you on the counter, eat quickly so we can head out." She went back to reading while I ate my breakfast. I knew that we were going on a small road trip but she had refused to tell me where - she wanted it to be a surprise.

Whenever Sassy and I both had free time we would go exploring, after we had gone to all the major tourist places we moved onto some of the less traveled places. Some of the things turned out to be as boring as heck, or would have been had Sassy not been there to entertain me - the museum of modern art for example was filled with I can't decide what, but it sure as heck was not art.

Any time we were in public Sassy made sure to keep a very safe and 'friendly' distance from me; it got kind of irritating but deep down I knew she was sort of, maybe, probably right about settling into college life before jumping into a relationship with her. At some of the worse times I would be afraid that she did not want any more kisses between us because I had sucked at kissing; but quickly I would reassure myself with the mental picture of Sassy right after I kissed her that night. She had been completely flushed, her lips were swollen, her perfect hair was all messed up and more importantly her eyes were completely glazed over like there was not a thought going through her head. Needless to say I was desperate to get that look back on her face.

So that is how I had spent the first month of college, getting used to the crowds and exploring with Sassy. Eventually I got so used to the crowds that I could sit through some of my larger lectures without freaking out. Though I knew exactly where the exits were and would at times go outside for a few minutes just to get away from the smell.

This Saturday morning Sassy was very secretive about our destination, I really hoped it would not be another museum but from her sturdy shoes and the large picnic basket she loaded into the back seat of her care we were not going anywhere around people.

Driving with Sassy was always a pleasure, we talked about everything and nothing as we drove in a southeast direction. We were taking the smaller country roads, they tended to be more winding but much more scenic than the larger interstate.

Less than two hours later we were pulling up in front of what looked to be a farm, Sassy went to talk to the farmer that had come out to greet us while I was instructed to pull out the sacks from the trunk of her Lexus.

From the gist of the conversation it became clear that we were going apple picking. As I followed Sassy towards the orchard I could not help myself, "so you have fallen for the silly pick your own apples tourist trap?" I teased her, gentleman that I was of course I allowed her to go through the gate first. _It also gave me a good view of her nice round behind, but that was just a perk._

She raised one eyebrow at me as she passed by me, "most tourists don't pay to pick 150 pounds of apples."

I let out a little cough, as she pulled out one of the large burlap sacks in my hand. She had picked up a couple of baskets as we passed the gate. "Now Seth, I need you to find the apples that are firm and make sure they are not bruised. Larger are better but not if they are filled with blemishes. Those will have to be cut out and that will make extra work. You are tall enough that you can reach areas of the tree that have not been picked over."

"What are you going to do with that many apples?" I asked as she headed over to a tree and started to fill up her basket.

As we picked apples she went on to tell me stories of being on the island and picking apples with her grandmother. "She was a slave driver, all the apples had to be picked and since no one outside the family is allowed on the island we had to do it all ourselves. Now those apple trees were not cute and small like these ones. Not for my grandmother, her apple trees are these towering giants and you actually had to climb to the top of the trees to get everything."

I mentally pictured Sassy as a ten year old high up in a tree and smiled, for some reason whenever I though of her as I child she always had skinned knees and pigtails.

"What is so funny," Sassy asked causally emptying her basket into the large burlap sack before heading out to pick more apples.

"Nothing, just a funny picture in my head," did I mention that in my head child Sassy also had just lost her front teeth?

We took a short break for lunch, Sassy had packed a picnic but she did not let me linger for long. "Wow Seth you really are a slowpoke today."

With that she threw down the gauntlet, and I challenged her to an apple picking contest. "Winner gets to ask a favor from the loser," I named my terms and did not even wait for her to agree. Instead I headed off to get ahead start, she was really good at apple picking and I needed all the advantages I could get to win this little game.

"No cheating and picking lousy apples," Sassy shouted from behind me and she too headed off to another part of the orchard. I could hear her laughter carry on through the trees before it all became quiet.

It was nearly twilight when we started the journey home, lunch had been a while back so my stomach was starting to make some pretty angry noises.

"Don't worry there is a clean enough place along this road that should still be open," Sassy told me when after an especially loud gurgle coming from my belly. She was still in a good mood, despite of the fact that she had lost the bet.

It might have only been a two pound difference but I still picked more apples than her, being able to reach the apples that were too high for most people gave me a big advantage. My only problem now was to figure out what I wanted to ask for.

There were so many things that she and her family had already provided for me, I felt kind of bad asking for something else. Quickly deciding it would have to be something that did not cost any money I tried to come up with something. _You know what you want her to give you, another kiss. _I had my pride and needed her to give me one because she wanted to and not because she lost a bet. So I was somewhat stuck.

It only took about half an hour from the orchard to find the small mom and pop diner by the side of the road. It looked kind of worn down from the outside.

"Are you sure you want to eat here?" I asked, doubt lacing my voice. The building was small with a dirt aka mud parking lot, the windows were so small that you could barely see inside and even those were covered by small yellowing curtains. "I might be able to handle anything but you are essentially human and you might get something bad here."

"You are so funny, no Kendrick and I used to come here all the time. They have a great veggie burger, they grow many of the ingredients themselves and then cook them up." Sassy did not hesitate to step outside.

I was still a little reluctant, but I still rushed forward to open the door for her. I had some manners. The air inside the small building was stuffy but also filled with some of the most delicious smells of food - though my opinion might have been influenced by my hunger. "What is that?"

"Did I mention they also makes some of the best fried apple pies you have ever met." Sassy told me as I followed her to a small booth. The inside looked a lot nicer than you would think based on the outward appearance of the building. There were several sturdy wood tables that had been recently scrubbed clean and everyone had a bouquet of local wildflowers shoved into an old fashioned coke bottle.

The menus were in a clip next to the vase of flowers, it was nice that we did not have to wait for a waitress to come help us. "So you say the veggie burger is good here?" Naturally I looked at Sassy when asking this question but was immediately distracted. She was perusing her own menu and obviously concentrating, her plump lower lips were caught by her teeth. My huger forgotten, at least the hunger for food, as I longer to dive across the small scarred table and pull that lip into my mouth. Would she taste of the apples we had been sneaking all afternoon, I was willing to bet she would be a lot sweeter.

"What can I get you folks?" A voice interrupted my fantasies, our waitress had arrived.

"Do you know what you want?" Sassy asked me looking as she set down her menu. I was not about to admit that instead of looking at the menu I was lost in my own perverted dreams so I simply nodded. I hoped my darker skin would hide my blush.

"All right I will have the veggie burger with extra tomato but no pickles, I also want a large order of your veggie chips and a large apple cider." Sassy gave her order to the waitress who raised her eyebrow at the large order. Sassy looked kind of slender, but she was still over six feet tall which took a great deal of food to keep up.

"I will have the same but two burgers for me, and I do want the pickles and no onion please." The waitress raised her eyebrows even more in wonder, I just gave her my smile. One of the best and worst things about being a wolf was the amount of food we could put away. It was great because you could eat anything you wanted, but it was bad because you had to eat constantly.

"So did you enjoy picking apples?" Sassy asked me as our waitress went to get our drinks.

"Yeah, especially since I won the bet." It probably was not nice but I could not help but rub it in a little.

"I demand a recount," she told me with a smile. She did not act at all bothered by the fact that she owed me - come to think of it she was supposed to be psychic, how had she not seen that I would win the bet? Unless of course she wanted to lose the bet, was this all an elaborate set-up?

Fortunately for my sanity the waitress arrived with our drinks before I could drive myself too crazy trying to decipher a woman's mind.

"So how is school working out for you?" Sassy asked changing the subject.

"It is kind of fun, a lot different from high school. Leah had warned me that I would not be babied, but this seems to be a trial by fire." I could not complain about it, all my focus had been spent on schoolwork.

"Things might seem a little tough, but you are going to one of the top fifty schools in the nation. I think last time I checked it was rated 41st in the nation." She gave my hand an encouraging pat. "If you need any help you know all you have to do is ask, but from the sounds of it you are doing great."

"Well we will find out once midterms come," I told her with a small worried smile.

"Don't worry about it, you have been really good about keeping up with your work as you go along. Especially for a Freshman you are amazingly focused on your education."

"I used to not be that way, but if I want to amount to something," aka if I want to be good enough for Sassy I would need to work my butt off.

Sassy gave me a funky look, "I hope you are doing this for yourself Seth and not for anyone else." Sassy was capable of picking up thoughts of others around her but she was not as pushy about it as Edward - she tended to give people around her some privacy, personally I could attest tot he fact that being in other people's heads was not always fun.

For a moment I wondered if she had read my mind, "how about I am doing it for myself, but I might also have other reasons." I gave her a small wink, "I can't have people thinking that Leah is the brains in the family, it might go to her head." We both knew that Leah had finally gotten back to feeling good about herself, her ex-boyfriend's rejection had really done a number on her.

"Don't worry about Leah, I think Phil will keep her ego from getting too large, and vice versa." Sassy's laugh was always a joy to hear.

"It is kind of weird to do nothing but school." I almost felt guilty, like I was slacking, maybe that was why I kept up with schoolwork so feel.

"What do you mean?" She asked a little perplexed.

"Well most of my life I had to work in some capacity, either at my parent's store or as a member of a pack. Just seems strange not having to multitask." I gave her a small shrug not wanting to sound like I was complaining.

"Maybe you can get a job, your classes don't take up that much of your time." I was mainly venting but of course Sassy being who she was immediately started trying to solve my problems. She suggested trying to figure out what I wanted to be when 'I grew up' and then trying to find a job in that field. "You can also try to look for a student group to join on campus, especially if you join one that does community service it can look good if you wish to go on in your education."

"Please don't pull out your laptop and start finding me clubs to join." I started to laugh as she got a guilty look.

"Actually I was going to pull out my smartphone, the laptop is still in the car," she was blushing slightly.

"Thank you, I will ask around," as much as I appreciated everything Sassy did for me, she worked hard enough without having to find me something to do with my free time.

"Here you go dears," the waitress interrupted by placing our food in front of us. I quickly grabbed one of the veggie chips and stuffed it in my mouth before I asked for the ketchup.

"These things are really good," I told Sassy as picked up another one. She merely nodded and took the top off her burger to fix it the way she liked. I quickly followed her example noticing the onions they had forgotten to take off, I rolled my eyes as I pulled them off with a fork.

"There is the ketchup," the waitress asked with a laugh, "how long have you two be together?"

I looked up at her confused, what makes think that we were dating.

"You two just exchanged hostages," she shook her head as she wandered grab the pitcher of water to refill one of the other tables.

Sassy gave a small giggle as well, I could not resist a smile despite of the fact that I was still confused.

Sassy used her fork to point to my plate, "I put my extra pickles on your plate and you put the onions you did not want on my plate."

I looked down on my plate and sure enough without even thinking I had put the hated onions on her plate. The pickles she had place on my plate were already added to my burger. We had eaten many a meal together, I guess knowing her food preferences made people think we were a couple.

"It also helps that I am not dressed like a lawyer, and you look about twenty five or so." She told me before biting into her burger.

As I took a much bigger bite out of my own burger I had an epiphany. I finally knew what I wanted for winning the bet, a date - dinner and a movie, but in a place that no one knew us. People who did not know us could not tell the vast difference between our ages. It would not have to be anything huge, hell even going to the dollar movie just so long as I could hold her hand for a few hours.

Having a public relationship was a can of worms that I did not want to deal with just yet. I was not ashamed of my love for Sassy, but others who did not know about imprinting might take it the wrong way. I did not care about the opinion of others much but it might cause extra trouble for Sassy and I wanted to help my mate not harm her. Plus more importantly I did not think it was anyone else's business what I did with Sassy, I knew she was naturally a private person and I did not want to make her uncomfortable. It was also somewhat uncomfortable constantly having to tone down my feelings towards her - I usually had to behave when we were in public, I could not act like she was my entire world.

"About this bet," I started my speech, how was I supposed to ask in a way that she still felt like she had a choice?

"Yes," she gave me a smirk and raised an eyebrow.

"Dinner and a movie, where no one knows how old I am," I blurted it out quickly. Her eyes widened in surprise before her expression shifted to one of contemplation. She went back to eating he veggie chips making me squirm with worry.

"Do you want a specific type of dinner or movie in mind?" she asked after a few minutes.

"Not really," maybe I should have been more specific but I did not really care so long that I was with her.

"Hmm I am going to have to think about this," she pushed her plate away from her and signaled for the waitress.

"Hey we had a bet," I was suddenly upset, already missing the potential opportunity to not have to disguise what I felt for he

"I am more than willing to honor it, despite the fact that you did not wait for me to agree," she gave me a fake look of disapproval before asking the waitress for fried apple pies for dessert. "I am just scheduled to head out of town for a week or so and it might take me a while to come up with something."

I immediately offered to pay for it, since I was the one asking but she would not hear of it because she was the one who lost the bet. "All right then you can call it my birthday present, not that I expect you to get me one or anything." Even though I got a birthday presents from her in the past it was kind of presumptuous to assume she would get me another.

"Oh no, this is not a birthday present, that is already bought and payed for." She told me with a twinkle in her eye, and I was getting worried. In the past her gifts had been practical, clothes and shoes and such. For graduation several family members pooled together and bought me a laptop for school. The look she was giving me sort of made me somewhat nervous.

"So are you going to give me a clue?" I was very curious, and a little bit excited wondering why she was acting so mysterious about my gift.

"You will have to wait until next month to find out, there will be no hints either so don't bother." She definitely was up to something.

We did not stay much longer at the diner, after finishing our fried pies we headed back home. Sunday was spent in the tedious task of peeling and cleaning a lot of those apples. Sassy managed to talk the rest of the pack into helping with promises of homemade apple pies for dinner. Phil was right, we were food whores - willing to do anything for food.

* * *

Sassy headed out of town on Monday, this time to India. Before she left Phil made her promise to bring back good curry, the rest of the pack was salivating at the prospect of the curried chicken that he would make for us when she came back.

As pathetic as it sounded I missed her before she even left. My attention was not fully on schoolwork, or at least I felt like I missed half the conversations.

"So have you heard about this comedian the Student Program Board is bringing onto campus?" Michelle, one of my Bio Lab partners looking straight at me.

"No I can't say that I have," I wondered what Sassy was doing, she had meetings all day today and it would be hard to talk to her because of the time difference.

"They have poster all over the halls, she is supposed to be really awesome." Michelle continued trying to sell her comedian, and I was somewhat confused as to why.

"Are you talking about that lesbian chick?" Tom asked looking up from his work. We were pretty much putting beads on a string for this lab, "what the hell are we supposed to be learning about again?"

"Chromosomes and how crossing over mixes up the maternal and paternal alleles." Michelle answered Tom's question.

"Yeah I can read, but what the heck does it mean?" Tom rolled his eyes in her direction, she had just read our lab manual word for word. "I don't know about you but I have no idea what Professor Brown actually says."

"Yeah he does tend to get off topic most days," Michelle agreed, "anyway what does a comedian's sexual orientation have to do with how funny she is?"

I tried to hold in my laughter, Tom and Michelle were capable of holding two conversations at the same time with each other. At first it had been a little confusing but now I learned to focus in on one of the subjects so as not to get lost.

"So Seth do you like comedians?" Dani asked, looking me directly in the eye. I knew there was something she was trying to get me to do but for the life of me I could not figure it out.

"If she is supposed to be funny maybe I can take Lindsey to it," Tom added helpfully as he dropped the end of his string and lost everything he had been working on for the past few minutes. He started cursing quietly as he reached under the table to pick up the lost beads. Lindsey was Tom's girlfriend, she was an interesting girl that in my opinion cared more about the proper application of her make-up than receiving a quality education. I was not going to judge, Tom seemed to like her so that is all that mattered. Maybe I had not talked given her a chance to truly shine.

"Comedies can be funny," I replied quietly as I put my own 'chromosome' together. Sassy like the older British comedies, some of them were actually funny though the accent made it hard to get the jokes sometimes. Though was always willing to watch them with her, Sassy laughing was one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen. Being a corporate lawyer meant that she had to behave a certain way: always cool, calm and collected. If I had not know the real person hiding behind the mask I would have called her uptight; though it was hard not to notice that she was a little obsessive compulsive and needed to have things done the 'right' way.

When Sassy laughed the mask fell away and she just radiated joy, you could not help smiling along with her. Just thinking about it made a goofy grin appear on my face.

"So are you going, because I though we could all go together," Michelle pointed out in a suddenly voice.

Dani looked up from the floor where she was trying to help Tom and made some sort of gestures at me behind Michelle's back. I looked over at Tom but he gave me a quick shrug that said 'hell if I know'. Michelle finally looked behind her causing Dani to stop the attempts at sign language.

"You know what would be cool, all of you could go together. Tom and his girlfriend, and Seth and Michelle." Dani told us like this was the greatest plan in the world.

"Sounds kind of fun, why don't you come along too, then we can go as a big group." If this comedian was that good, it might be worth putting up with the large crowd for a few hours. As an added bonus it would give me something to do at least one night this week, well something other than miss Sassy.

"Um...I am kind of busy," Dani said suddenly sounding uncomfortable while giving Dani a sideways look.

"What why? Come on it will be fun," Tom chimed in, "what else are you going to do on a Thursday night? Your homework? Write an essay."

"Yeah, sure, sounds great." Dani replied with very little enthusiasm after giving a strange look to Michelle. The lab assistant started making rounds, and we decided it would be best to get our actual work done. Tom and Dani lived in the dorms and Michelle rented an apartment with a friend, it would have been a hassle to try and carpool. To make things easier we all decided it would be best just to meet up near the auditorium; we exchanged cell phone numbers just in case someone could not make it.

* * *

A/N: All right ladies was that enough fluff for you? I know Seth did not understand that last part in the lab but did everyone else understand the interaction?

I have been really bad about replying to reviews and some of you leave anonymous one so I can't so I am doing it all here. I apologize for typos, I will sometime in the future when I get into a more OCD mode go back and fix them all - but not anytime soon.

Runaway'96: Glad you liked the story, sorry that it took me so long to update.

Jada91: I can understand why you pity Seth too, and of course he will get the girl...eventually. I mean what girl would say no to Seth?

Twilightluver26: Glad you liked the kiss, I hope it was not weird or anything. It is strange writing from a boy's point of view.

Connect2jb: Well I finally got around to working on this story, here is a little bit more for you. Thanks for all the love :D.

Hilja: I would think that Seth would be stuck in that spot, in between man and boy. I don't think it is always a smooth transition. (In fact I think the teenage years attest to the fact that it is not easy or pleasant to grow into an adult). Especially with someone like Seth who does have the added baggage of losing a father, and it is not like he wants to ask his mother for girl advice. I hope to convey that but it is a lot harder than I first thought.

Twilighter: So tell me what you think? Was that good for you or did you need something else. I did take your advice on both him winning the bet and what he should ask for. I still have not decided whether he was going to give her a hickey or not. :D

I await your judgement with much anticipation, I even stayed up way past my bedtime to get it out tonight.

A whole new Seth chapter's worth of love, LW


	6. The Date

Chapter 6 - The date

It was like time was at a complete standstill, the classes felt like they lasted forever. The professor's voices were especially boring and dry. The topics they discussed were beyond my grasp. I could not follow the math problems that they presented on the board and for some reason the inner workings of yet another American puritan writer was not really all important. _Yeah, yeah we got it they hated everything that was fun: dancing, music, and sex - hmm sex with Sassy would be a sin I would like to commit._

I must have gotten used to having Sassy around the past few weeks, I was missing her so much. She would usually be gone when I woke up in the morning but she would spend most evenings with me. Part of my need to be around her was because I liked her but another part was the need to protect her. I had gone through this problem last time she left, but I don't remember feeling this bad about it.

I should have used my time to try to find a club to join, or I could have gone to look for a potential job - but nothing seemed to be able to hold my interest. It was like my life was on pause, until she was safely back at my side. I had looked up information regarding India before she went for a visit, it did not help that I saw the rates of violence against women - not to mention all the diseases that ran rampant through there.

Leah had laughed when I mentioned this, "she is going to the developed parts of the country. She will have indoor plumbing and if she really wants to I am sure she can even find a Mcdolands to eat a happy meal."

Luckily for me Michelle called on Wednesday night to remind me that our biology lab group was meeting the next night to go see that comedian, Sara Rose. I was probably putting too much stock in the Sara Rose's act but I was desperate for a distraction.

The show was supposed to begin at seven so we planned to meet on one of the quads around six thirty. I quickly grabbed something to eat before showering and pulling on a pair of jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt. The evening was cool enough that I needed to grab a jacket to prevent people from getting suspicious.

My only problem was going to find a ride, the house was large enough that you did not always know who was home - plus Phil had put in some sort of elite soundproofing between the rooms that would make it impossible to hear them moving around. Most days I was very happy for that, because I did not want to think about what Phil and Leah did behind closed doors - and I sure as hell did not want to hear them. All the common rooms were empty and I knew that Embry, who had given me my ride back from school, had headed out earlier to go work on some paper. Jake was doing something with the Cullen family, while Quil had made a quick run to see his Claire.

My best bet was to check the garage and see who all was here. Pulling on a pair of tennis shoes I headed out to the detached garage that housed the fleet of cars the family and my pack owned. We had some serious horsepower between the two groups, but by far the family was winning - it was a matter of money, they had more than my pack.

"Crap," I swore as I surveyed my options. My sister's car was gone, usually I was able to borrow it from her when I needed transportation. I did not feel like I could just borrow anyone else's car, as nice as Angus was it would have been rude to just take his car. As I was standing there trying to figure out how to get back to downtown Seattle one of the automatic car doors began to open.

Recognizing Phil's car I waved to him, but I was slightly disappointed. I had been kind of hoping that my sister was returning.

"Hey kid, what is wrong?" Phil asked as he got out of car, he was dressed in casual clothes but I could still smell the slight scent of disinfectant on him. He must have just come from the hospital, though he was dressed in slacks and a button up shirt.

"I was trying to get a ride to campus, but it seems Leah is not here." I was trying not to whine, but really this week could not go by fast enough.

"Yeah she went out of town for a couple of days with her advisor, they went up north to interview some tribe. She won't be back until Sunday afternoon." Phil grabbed his things from the passenger seat before closing and locking his car. "So I think you might be waiting for a while."

"Well crud, none of the other members of the pack are here." I really needed to get me a car, but seriously this household had too many cars already.

"Seth it is not like you don't have a license, why don't you just take one of the cars," he waved his hand over the group in front of me. "I would suggest you don't go for a bike, it looks like we are going to get a bit of rain later this evening."

I suddenly looked away, not knowing how to explain. "Uh, well. I don't feel comfortable just taking one of these cars."

"Why?" he balanced his bag in one hand as he leaned against one of the walls.

"I guess I have yet to get used to this whole communal property thing. You guys don't seem to own anything as individuals. It all belongs to the family." It had taken me a while to figure out that they did this, but it still made me uneasy to just take things without asking.

"Well yeah it is almost better that way. Trust me I have enough of my own crap in my house on the island." I had been to his house there, it was a lot less picture perfect than this house. But it also felt a lot like home, it was funny to see how Leah was starting to influence that place as well. I think she deliberately bought especially girly things in an attempt to make him squeal. "Why don't you take Sassy's Lexus then," Phil continued pointing to her car.

"I don't know if she would mind or not." It was early morning in India, so she was probably in a meeting.

"Don't you drive it all the time," Phil pointed out. "I would let you take mine, but I am on call tonight."

"Yeah but at that point she is in the car with me," we took turns driving the car, she was not one of those people that constantly had to be the one driving.

"Do what you like, but I know Sassy would think you were foolish to not just take the car." Phil seemed to think the conversation was over, he gave me a wave before heading to the house.

His confidence finally convinced me to take her sleek little car, not that I had much choice - Phil could not drive me and I was running out of time. Driving Sassy's car was a mixed blessing, on one hand her scent still lingered on the seats, but unfortunately I was reminded of the fact that she still had days before she could come back. Fortunately for me, and don't ask me why, she had a student parking permit in her glove compartment. I drove very carefully towards campus, keeping well below the speed limit. I would not want to wreck such an expensive car, because I sure as heck could not afford to replace it. If I thought driving it was bad the thought of parking it somewhere on campus next to the college kids cars was even worse. I knew that it had an amazing anti-theft system but that would not prevent it from being scratched or dinged up. I parked in one of the less used parking lots, hoping that there would not be enough traffic here that would force someone to have to park next to me.

With a sense of deja vu I followed the crowds of students heading to the large auditorium. She must be really good if Student Life had reserved such a large venue for the comedian. The humor of the situation was that Sassy had been out of the country last time I had entered this building for student orientation. This time there would be no chance that she would come pick me up in the Lexus, plus when I talked to her last night it looked like the two parties she was trying to work with were not yet ready to settle down. I had jokingly told her it sounded like they were arranging a marriage and not a business deal.

"For some people they put more thought into their business deals than their marriage. I guess that is why Americans have a fifty percent divorce rate." Her voice over the phone sounded amused, I wished I had been able to see if she was smiling or not. We had not been able to talk for very long, she had to leave for another meeting and I made another attempt at studying.

It did not take me long to locate Tom, all I had to do was look for his smell. It seemed he had gone a little more overboard than usual with the aftershave. "Hey Seth," he did a quick shake of hands. "You remember Lindsey."

He pointed out his sort of girlfriend, I tried to say hello but she was too busy trying to fix her hair. It might have been the fact that I was a guy or maybe because I was mated but to me girls all looked the same. I never understood why the sudden need to look exactly like everyone else. Not that I was one to keep up with the most current fashions but even I noticed that there was a certain look that all the girls currently favored, that sleek hair with one half of their face completely covered. Peeking out with just one eye was that heavily coated with thick eyeliner and goopey mascara and eyeshadow that was usually far to dark to compliment their skin. Some girls wore their make up so thick they looked like they had been in a bar fight.

My sister used to dress somewhat like that when she had been fully human, she had dropped most of those pretenses when she started to shift into a wolf, and luckily she never picked it up when she came out of those dark times that followed the months after her first transforming.

I never could understand why the need for such heavy make-up, it made everyone look exactly the same. I loved that Sassy did not feel the need to hide half her face behind her hair. I got a much better opportunity to look at her beautiful eyes. But Sassy was like no other woman I had ever met.

I shook my head and concentrated as Lindsey's complained about the rain making her hair all frizzy. "I can wait for Michelle and Dani over here if you guys want to go grab some seats." I suggested helpfully.

Tom gave me a grateful look before escorting the still protesting Lindsey into the auditorium. I nodded in answer and tried to look over the crowd for Michelle and Dani, the rain had started drizzling a little more and people had pulled on various hoods and hats making it harder to identify people.

I finally spotted Michelle looking around on the other side of the quad, it was too far to call out to her so I thought it would be easier to go to her than to wait for her to see me. It was easy for me to cut through the crowd, most people saw me coming and they just instinctually got out of my way - it was very convenient in times like these.

She jumped a little when I tapped her on the shoulder, it was not really her fault since I had approached her from the side and she had been looking the other way. "Hi," she told me with a big smile. It was interesting to note that she too had the whole cover half your face, wear too much eye make-up going. She was wearing thick lipgloss that had several strands of her freshly straightened hair stuck to it. I did not want to heurt her feelings by telling her that she looked a lot nicer with her hair back in her usual ponytail.

"Hi," I smiled back at her, "where is Dani? Tom and his girlfriend are already inside."

"Yeah hi Seth! Dani called me, she said she had a headache and could not make it," Michelle told me with a blush as she returned my greeting. I would never understand women, why the hell would she blush over the fact that her friend had a headache? Oh maybe, she was on the rag or something, sometimes girls were so weird about their periods.

"Oh I am sorry to hear that, so you want to go find Tom and Lindsey?" I asked as I nodded towards the open doors.

It took us a while to locate the Tom and his girlfriend, the place was already starting to be packed. I guess this was not going to be a small intimate comedy show.

In the end the show was better than I had hoped, I was able to forget about Sassy being gone most of the time and concentrate on the comedian doing her thing. Things got a little awkward when Lindsey and Tom started making out in the middle of the show. Michelle was sitting next to me and I could feel her stiffen when she noticed them groping each other. It was somewhat uncomfortable sitting next to a girl who was just a friend, when the couple next to you were practicing tonsil hockey.

The comedian went through the usual routine, make fun of politics, men and woman and even the weather. We all laughed at the appropriate times, and when she bowed after her final joke we gave one last laugh before starting look for a way out of the crowded building.

"So do you guys want to go out for a drink of coffee or something," Michelle asked as we gathered up our stuff and followed the crowds out the doors. The smell of rain permeated the air outside, night had fallen during our time inside making the clouds overhead even darker. We moved a little away from the crowds and I took a deep breath, it was finally free of the overwhelming smell of human. It was beyond impressive that the Cullen family managed to stand being around humans, they did not smell tasty to me but they were still far too pungent for me to be around such large groups of them.

"You really don't like crowds," Michelle observed with a laugh.

"What are you claustrophobic or something?" Tom asked me only half jokingly, it was a guy thing. We might be friends but you always looked for weaknesses in potential competition.

My mind was somewhere else, on Sassy of course, and so I answered more truthfully than I would have wished, "nah, it is the smell that gets to me."

"I don't smell," Lindsey told me with an offended tone, I had noticed that she was one of those people that could be easily offended. In fact it was Sassy that pointed these types of people out to me - they get offended by any little thing so they can have power over you.

"No you don't smell, in fact your perfume is very nice," I lied," my problem is my sense of smell is very sensitive and things get bad when I smell everyone's perfume within a six feet radius, all combined."

"I am sorry," Michelle was trying to sniff herself without being apparent, and I felt bad for hurting her feelings.

It was a choice between lying or hurting her feelings, "not your fault, just the combination of the crowds of people."

"That must put a crimp in your social life," Tom told me with a laugh. He was not bothered by my comments, instead he seemed vastly amused.

"Not at all, there are plenty of things to do without people around. I have pretty much explored a great deal of Seattle in the past few weeks. Other than the really busy tourist places you can avoid people. Plus if you go really early in the morning it is not as crowded." Sassy had been really good about trying to acclimate me to the larger, smellier crowds. It helped that I could just stand really close to her and inhale her familiar scent, she tended to go for the simpler perfumes that were always a pleasure to smell.

"Well if you don't like crowds there is this really small coffee shop just outside of campus that is really good but it does not have all that many people. I don't care for large crowds either," Michelle was blushing again. Lindsey gave some sort of snort as she looked Michelle over. Again, I felt like I was missing some female form of communication. I was seriously going to have to ask Leah or Sassy about this.

"Well I don't really have anything better to do so let's go" Lindsey's tone indicated that she was the one doing everyone the favor. Personally I could not see what Tom was doing with her, but maybe she was nicer when you got her alone or something.

"I don't care either way," I shrugged my shoulders. I had nothing better to do and my other option was to go home and miss Sassy so I agreed. The smile Michelle threw in my direction was way too bright - all I had done was agree to go out for coffee. It was not like this was a marriage proposal or anything.

We were walking past one of the many buildings when I noticed an older woman struggling to open door while she was trying to balance a box - from the looks of things the door was about to win.

"Hold on a second," I told the group, my mother would drive down from the Rez and personally smack me around if she ever found out that I walked past a woman in need. I quickly jogged over to the door, "ma'am do you need any help?" I asked in my softest and most polite voice, there was no need to scare her.

"What," she turned and would have dropped her box had I not grabbed it out of her hand. She finally looked up at me, all the way up. I could see her eyes widening as she realized how large the man standing in front of her was.

"Do you need any help?" I asked with my biggest smile, hoping she would understand that I meant no harm.

"What, oh thank you." She got herself together and stepped outside. As I had noted earlier she was an older woman, probably closer to age to the faculty and not the students here. She was dressed far too nicely to be carrying around boxes. "That pesky door was giving me a hard time." She told me with a small laugh. "It is so nice to meet people that are willing to help out a stranger. If you were to believe the news then you would think people these days will walk over your bleeding corpse rather than get off their phones." I think she forgotten about her earlier feeling, and now was busy chattering. "Oh dear, here I am talking your head off, and you are holding that heavy box."

My friends had wandered over to where I was, wondering what the heck I was doing. I looked away from the woman in front of me to ask them a question, "what was the name of the coffee place?" There was no way I would allow this woman to carry a box this heavy across campus.

Michelle gave me a name, and I nodded as I repeated it back to her. "I will catch up with you guys later," I turned back to the woman in front of me, "now where did you want me to carry your box."

"Thank you so much," the relief was obvious in her tone. "I was holding this seminar for young rape victims and the boys who had helped bring in the boxes left early and I did not want to leave all my pamphlets laying around." She started at a brisk pace in the opposite direction my friends had taken.

Suddenly she stopped and turned around to face me, only my wolf reflexes prevented me from plowing into her. "I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Joanna Williams," she started to reach out a hand in my direction but quickly realized that my hands were occupied.

"Nice to meet you Ms Williams, my name is Seth Clearwater." I gave her a nod in place of shaking her hand.

"I normally don't do this. Another little girl does the talk but she ended up with a cold and could not find a good replacement on such short notice." She gestured towards the box, making me think she did not usually give the talk and so was not as prepared as she could have been. "My charity work usually entails something along the lines of throwing a party. You know charity ball and all that, that is what I like to do. I know it sounds shallow to say I prefer parties to education but it is really best when you can relate to your audience. Quiet frankly I know nothing about teenage girls in college. I am not going to admit how long ago I was that age. A woman has to have a few secrets." She gave me a smile and a saucy little wink, Ms Williams was the sort of woman who did not need a partner in order to have a conversation. But she was kind of fun to listen to, now that the heavy box was no longer weighing her down there was an extra little click in her heels as she led me to her car.

Based on the fine laugh lines around her eyes I was going to guess she was in her mid sixties. The bright yellow Cadillac should not have been a surprise, it suit her personality.

"Hmm I don't suppose you would be willing to help me with the other boxes. Or maybe you would like to join your girlfriend for coffee." She gave me a sly speculative look.

"I don't have a girlfriend and quite frankly I was just being nice." I returned her smile, "I am probably going to be hunted down and run out of town by a mob with pitchforks for admitting this but I hate coffee. I prefer a pop, though root beer is also good." One weekend this summer Leah and Phil had taken me with them when they went down to Portland. In the four days we spent there we must have toured at least a dozen breweries. Being a minor all I got to drink was root beer, but it was very tasty. Plus it smelled a lot better than the beer Leah had sampled.

"Don't worry your secret is safe with me, I really prefer herbal teas but when in Seattle you can't say those sort of things out loud." We headed back to get more boxes.

"So what does your organization support?" I asked mainly to be polite.

"We are trying to educate woman about violence and rape. Young women are especially vulnerable in college. The numbers are just horrifying and these are just the reported cases." Her sunny disposition disappeared for a few moments.

"Rape is a really big problem on reservations as well, the rape laws are really weak and jurisdiction is not clearly defined." I had learned all this when I was accused of rape, in my case the poor laws had helped me.

Ms Williams gave a strange look, like she noticed me for the first time. "Oh, I did not realize you were native american." She had paused for a moment, white people tended to search for the proper word to call us. Like it really mattered.

"Yup, until a month or so ago I lived on the one a few hours west of here." I pointed in the general direction of the Rez.

She asked the typical question of how different life was on the Rez versus Seattle, I gave her my usual answer of it is the same as a small town versus big city. It was not like I had been living on the moon or anything.

"I did not know there was a problem with rape on the reservations," she seemed really disturbed by this. It was not right but violence happened everywhere.

"Yes, there is a large problem. If a woman is brave enough to report a rape it is not properly investigated and even if there is ample evidence there is not a good system for prosecuting." You would think that as a guy that had been accused of rape I would not care about these things but all sorts of injustices bothered me.

She led me back into one of the smaller lecture halls, there were a few stragglers but otherwise the hall was cleared out. I guess I looked big enough that I could take two boxes at a time, because otherwise I would have to take a great many trips.

As we walked back and forth to her car I got to hear about her two daughters who were both grown up, one was living on the east coast, while the other had gone to the much sunnier California. Her husband turned out to be a judge, that might be one of the reasons she was so involved in her cause.

It took four trips total to carry everything to her car, I could have done it much faster but she insisted on walking with me to keep me company.

"This took so long, I feel terrible for making you miss coffee with your date." She looked so upset over this fact.

"I was not on a date, it was just a group of us. We had just gone to see the comedian that was on campus tonight," I tried to reassure her that nothing had been interrupted.

"Hmm, I don't know about you, but one of those girls looked very disappointed when you left. Plus I could help not notice that the other two were together. So if you all went together to a show it would not be too presumptuous to assume that the other young lady was your date." Her tone was authoritative enough, was that what this all had been about?

"But I did not ask her out, she asked all of us out. Her friend was supposed to come but she could not make it." See it had not been a date, Dani was just a little sick.

"The girl's good friend who suddenly had something come up and she could not make it?" Ms Williams gave me a sad look, making me feel a little foolish that I had not seen it.

"Why could she not just come out and ask me?" It would have saved a great deal of confusion at least on my part. Though Dani's gestures behind Michelle's back were now starting to make a lot more sense.

Instead of being sympathetic to my plight she laughed at me. "Thank you so much for all your help. Here let me give you my card," she dug through her purse to grab something from the bottom. She wrote on the card before handing it over to me. "On the back is my home phone. I insist that you come and have dinner with my husband. He will certainly enjoy talking to you. Is this Saturday much too early, we are having a little get together with a few families we know. So no need to mistake this for a date," she gave another laugh. "I will not take no for an answer, a boy like you is big enough that you always have to eat."

It was past ten when I finally got to the Lexus, I sent a text to Tom to let him know I was headed home. At this point I did not want to have any form of communication with Michelle - I was afraid that it would only lead her on - I would never forget how Leah felt when Sam left her. It would be cruel to lead Michelle on, but I would have to find a way to let her know I was not interested without hurting her feelings. I might not be able to announce it to the world but I belonged to Sassy. No other woman would be able to hold my interest.

* * *

A/N: All right girls, I have a new rule. I was trying to implement a new rule when it comes to writing - I have to write at least 1000 words per day on any of my stories - this was the product of that rule. Though I don't know how long I will be able to keep that up, but it was kind of cool being able to update two stories in the same day.

Anyway what do you girls think about the update? Next up I promise you there will be more Sassy and Seth.

Twilighter: Wow girl you need the gold star for reviews. Seriously, I wanted to check to make sure that you had reviewed my chapter. Thanks that is awesome. It made me want to write more :D.

Connect2tjb: Glad you liked it, I know some of you will probably be having a heart attack. I am usually a much bigger slacker when it comes to updating. Though I have to admit my laundry is not being folded. My clean sheets have been sitting in the basket for at least three days. :(

Anyways, leave me love...must have my review fix. :D


	7. Dilemmas

Chapter 7 - Dilemmas of a Teenage Boy

No good deed goes unpunished, or so the old saying went; this time however my need to help other people had some unforeseen benefits. Mrs Williams had been kind enough to point out what was going on regarding Michelle, it could have taken me weeks to figure out how she interpreted our interactions.

What the hell was I going to do about Michelle?

I took my time driving back home after making sure Mrs Williams drove off, traffic in the inner city was still heavy despite the it being nearly ten at night. As I drove past the city limits the number of cars dwindled but I still kept well below the speed limit. The rhythmic sound of the windshield wipers along with the hum of the engine was almost overwhelming as the signs of civilization disappeared. I knew that just past the row of trees would be one of the gated communities or several large houses, but for now I drove slowly and pretended I was alone in the world.

"This is no big deal," I told myself, hoping that saying the words out loud would make it them true. "All you have to do is correct one little mistake and things will go back to normal."

In retrospect it was probably simple ignorance on my part, having imprinted at the age of fifteen I had never been interested in the dating game - hence I never bothered trying to learn the rules. Dating Jenny had not taught me much, we went from talking at school to her sneaking out and meeting me at a few bonfires. There were a handful of shy kisses on my part but my heart had not been in it, I was always afraid of imprinting on some girl and leaving Jenny brokenhearted. I had seen first hand what that did to a girl, my sister had been a mess and had to practically leave the Rez before she truly got over what Sam did. My vast experience with girls and dating did not involve anything other a few chaste kisses, what Sassy and I did in her car constituted the furthest I had gone with another person. That bothered me a little but it was not enough to make me go out and try to gain some experience with another girl. Just the thought of another girl touching me in that way made me shudder, the wolf imprinting took away the desire for any other woman than the "the one". The biggest advantage had been that there was no need for me to go out and try to find the perfect girl for me when I knew with absolute certainty that Sassy was the one for me, best of all she was just as tied to me as I was to her. I would have to be patient for a while longer for her to realize that I was a man. Hopefully it would be sooner than later because I was about to burst with sexual frustration. At this point the need to touch Sassy had almost exceeded my desire for food, that was a big deal coming from a werewolf.

After my initial meeting with Sassy there had been a great deal of insecurity on my part, how could I ever be good enough for someone like her? She was far older and far wiser that I could even begin to imagine, it was hard to understand what someone like her would want with me. My one and only other relationship had ended with me finding the girl making out with another boy and this was followed up with my ex-girlfriend accusing me of rape. These days that fear had almost completely disappeared, Sassy had a way of making me feel like I was an important part of her life. She spent a great deal of time just listening to me, it was a big stroke to my ego that a woman as special as Sassy was interested in my thoughts. I forcefully attempted to change the direction of my thoughts, dreaming about Sassy and how wonderful she was would not help me right now - I had other problems to deal with at the present time.

My ignorance had given Michelle the wrong impression, Dani acting crazy made so much more sense when I understood her motivation. This miscommunication would have to be fixed quickly, it would be cruel to allow Michelle to continue to think I was interested. She was a nice girl but my relief at avoiding the stereotypical coffee date was nearly overwhelming.

"Aurora can you call Sassy?" The sudden need to talk to her was almost overwhelming.

"Josefine is in a meeting but if this is an emergency I can contact someone else or put you through to her." Aurora was the family's supercomputer that pretty much was a part of most electronics used by the family, it did not surprise me when her emotionless voice came through the speakers of the car.

"Oh that is all right, I will try again later." It had been explained to me a while back that I could talk to Aurora as a human and sometimes I had heard Sassy 'call' her in order to ask a question when there were normal people around. My disappointment at not being able to talk to Sassy was somewhat disproportionate to the situation. I would get to talk to her another time, and soon she would be back in the states.

After carefully parking Sassy's car I headed to my room and changed into my wolf clothes, my emotions had made me far too restless for staying in and I decided it might be best to go for a run. Running through the dark woods helped a little and would have been great had Embry not joined me.

_Hey what is up my brother?_ He asked as soon as he noticed I too was shifted, Embry had been listening to a little too much rap music. I considered trying to hide my thoughts from him but it usually was futile effort. Needless to say Embry quickly figured out what was wrong with me.

_Wow Seth I never realized you were such a player, maybe you won't set the record as the world's oldest virgin. _He liked to joke about such things especially since he had finally worked out things with his mate Stefi; for a while we were worried considering we thought Stefi was a guy.

_Embry I am not in the mood for your teasing_, I was practically growling. It was a good thing he was nowhere near me or I would have been tempted to try to take a bite out of him. I could tell that my reaction to finding out that Michelle was interested in me was over the top but I could not seem to help myself. Not being around Sassy was throwing me off balance. While I could logically tell myself that there was no true reason for me to be upset sometimes emotions trumped reason. The part that troubled me the most was that I missed all the signs when it came to Michelle, next time I would have to be a little more aware of the situation. In my defense I was male and therefore unable to even begin to understand the convoluted mind of a girl, maybe I could ask Phil for some advice. He struck me as a guy that had figured out how to read women; though he kind of cheated, with the whole mind reading thing so maybe he would not be all that helpful.

The worst part of all this was that on Monday afternoon I would have to face Michelle again, normally that would not bother me because she was a nice girl but now I would have to face her with the knowledge that she was interested in me in _that _ way. Fortunately we were done with the lab this week and I had the entire weekend to figure out what I was going to do about telling Michelle I was not interested in dating. Avoiding the campus might be a good plan because I was not ready to bump into her in the library.

Normally I would have felt bad about trying to avoid another person but this was for a good cause, it would be beyond cruel to try mislead Michelle into thinking that something was going to happen between the two of us. Here was another unanticipated consequence of imprinting on an older woman, the fact that I was so young meant that our relationship could not be as out in the open as I would have wished. There was no way for me to advertise the fact that I was not available and apparently at least one girl thought me attractive enough to try to pursue me. In Michelle's case she could have mistaken my initial defense of her as a way to show my interest, she did not know me well enough to realize that I felt compelled to help everyone. I wished there was a way to show that I was off the "meat market" as Leah liked to refer to it. Phil had the right idea when it came to my sister, he put a ring on Leah's finger that was big enough that even the most oblivious guy would notice. Plus the size of that rock was intimidating enough that most guys would quickly understand that they could not compete with Phil. Not that anyone who saw them together could doubt their love, but Phil was one of those guys that wanted all his bases covered especially when it came to his Princess. It was kind of strange that my sister let him call her that, the one time Embry tried it she nearly ripped his head off. When Phil called her Princess she practically purred, which was funny considering she was a wolf and not a cat. The thought of Phil making Leah purr for any reason was not one I needed to dwell on for too long, some things were better left unknown.

_I love it when you go all emo on us, we did not think you had it in you_. Embry interrupted my thoughts as I tried to run through the woods.

_That is it you are going down_, I mentally growled back at him. If he wanted a fight that is what I was going to down, pushing my muscles to the limits I headed in his direction. Nothing like a good fight to release some tension.

It was past two in the morning by the time Embry and I made it home, both of our bodies were covered with quickly healing bruises and a great deal of mud. Embry was the much muddier and much more bruised loser of our fight, next time he might pause and reconsider before teasing me - that was probably just wishful thinking on my part. It had taken me nearly an hour to track him down but when I did the ass kicking had been easy enough, a year or so ago I had outpaced Embry and had become second to only Jake when it came to size. We were carrying our clothes instead of putting them on, it would have only made our short muddy and over the years we had gotten used to walking around mostly naked.

"Ow Seth did you have to bite? How am I going to explain the Seth shaped teeth marks to Stefi, you know she is very territorial." He was rubbing the injured body part as we headed towards the house.

"Geez don't be such a baby, it was only a nip and it healed almost instantly, or is this one of those things where Stefi is the only one allowed to bite you?" My mood had improved a great deal since I first got home.

"Well...just don't bite me anymore," Embry replied sounding flustered and to my surprise he was blushing. I tried my hardest to prevent my brain from coming up with reasons for that blush, it worked...mostly. "Anyway how are we going to go inside covered with mud without tracking it through the house. I would rather not spend my weekend scrubbing floors and Phil is mean enough to make us do it especially since the cleaning crew went through the house today."

"Garden hose?" I suggested half jokingly, a little water could improve us a little bit. "Though I keep making the suggestion to Phil that he needs to add an outdoor shower." This had not been the first time we had come home covered with mud.

"Good plan, now come help me find the hose." Embry dumped his clothes by the side door and was off within seconds. Following him around the house to the garden shed I did not catch up to him until after he had the water turned on.

"Look it works," Embry told me as he squirted me with the water straight in the face. The water was cold but being a wolf it was not the temperature that bothered me about it, the problem was that the way he angled the hose pushed water straight up my nose. After much spluttering I was finally able to get the water out of my eyes and with a growl I threw myself at Embry. As booth of us tried to gain control of the water hose we ended up on the ground wresting, I don't know how long we would have gone on had a flash of light not interrupted our epic battle.

"What the hell?" Embry said loosening his grip on the hose but I was too surprised to take advantage of that fact. Instead we were both blinking in the direction of the blinding flash trying to figure out what was going on. The flash had messed with my night vision so I could not see clearly who was there.

"Hmmm two naked boys rolling around in the mud, this picture is so going to be going to the scrapbooks," as voice called out from the same direction as the light had come. It took me less that a second to recognize that amused voice, the smooth as velvet tone of my mate.

"Sassy, you are back," I jumped up, nearly losing my footing on the now muddy ground. I stepped towards her to give her a hug and make sure she was really here when I slammed into an invisible wall. "What is this?"

"Really Seth, have you seen yourself? Do you think I will let you come anywhere near me?" Her tone was still amused.

The water hose had been turned on and we had been rolling around on the ground with the mud, now grass and even more mud caked us. I could understand why Sassy wanted nothing to do with me, I looked up in her direction about to apologize but the words were stuck in my throat.

Sassy was of course beautifully and immaculately dressed in a business suit, her hair perfectly coiffed. That was not what made me pause, what made me stop myself was the expression on her face.

Her normal poise was gone, instead of the cool collected face I saw nothing but a little bit of amusement and mixed in with an emotion that was easy for me to identify - pure unadulterated lust. I watched in awe as her long eyelashes lifted to reveal pupils so large that there was only a sliver of brown left from her iris. The normally cinnamon colored cheeks were flushed a dusky pink, her lips too looked more red than usual and I was willing to bet it had nothing to do with the very light makeup she wore. Here eyes were moving up from my toes all the way to my chest before they moved back down again, her stare was almost like a caress over my suddenly warm body. I could feel the flames of desire rising inside of me as I imagined what it would be like if she used those long and delicate fingers instead of her eyes on my body. Her hands were fisted by her sides, almost like she was fighting herself.

Touch me, I wanted to say it out loud. I watched as her lips puckered and opened slightly, a small flick of a pink tongue came out as she nervously licked her lips. That was what finally did me in, the hint of that tongue. I wanted to taste it again, I needed to taste her again.

Everything else was forgotten as I took one, then two steps towards her. Up close I could hear the rapid beat of her heart as it sped up even more.

"Wow we really are muddy," Embry's voice was like a bucket of cold water. To my dismay I watched as Sassy pulled herself together, the cool queen was back in place. While my mind quickly realized the moment was gone my body had not understood that message as of yet.

I whimpered out loud, feeling physical pain at the knowledge that I would not even get a small taste of her tonight. My whimper quickly changed into a growl as I turned on my heel and planted my fist in Embry's face.

Really why was he acting all surprised even an idiot should have seen it coming.

A/N: Sorry this took so long, I had it all finished right before christmas then I read it over and hated it. So I began all over again but I got stuck. Thanks for all you patience with this story and with Phil's. I will try to be quicker next time oh and I did it shorter than usual on purpose, I will try to get up the next chapter by next Wednesday.

I am working on Phil's as well but I don't know if I will post my current chapter, it is really just a character study. Trying to flesh him out using interactions with other people, to see how he reacts with people who he cares about but he has to lie to.

As always thanks for all your encouragement, I would reply to all your reviews but I think we have both forgotten your comments it has been so long.


	8. Hot Chocolate

Chapter 8: Hot chocolate

Sassy and I were sitting at the dining room table drinking the hot chocolate Sassy had made to 'warm us up'. The drink was of course perfect and it was obvious even to my poorly developed tastebuds that this was not the powdery stuff you pour out of a little paper packed. Instead it was something along the lines of liquid ambrosia, and I would have been willing to marry her if only she would make this again. It was just the two of us sitting at the large dining room table. Embry had quickly disappeared after the punch to the face, maybe I had succeeded in finally knocking some sense into him - that was just wishful thinking on my part. He had an early class tomorrow and needed to get some sleep if he was going to be able to pay attention. We all had heard Stefi threaten to geld him with a rusty grapefruit spoon if he did not keep up a 4.0 GPA - we don't know if it was the threat of losing his balls or wanting to please his mate but much to our astonishment so far Embry has managed to make all A's.

So here I was sitting across the table from the love of my life, it felt like the distance between us was much more than the three or four feet of gleaming wood. The words unsaid were piling higher and higher, making an almost impossible pass. I just wanted us together no matter what society or reason said, sometimes the heart had to overrule the mind. My body and heart were in agreement, they wanted to be as close as possible to this woman. In a way I resented the rules of society that told me I was too young to feel this way. I could not ignore the way she had looked at me less than an hour ago, before the though of her not wanting me in that way had been a reason to hold myself back. Now that I had concrete evidence that she wanted me in that way, the only hinderance to my plan was the knowledge that it might hurt her if the world knew of our relationship. She would be the target of criticism and scorn since to the world it would appear that she is taking advantage of some naive child.

"Sassy..." I took a big gulp of my drink instead of finishing my sentence. _Things need to change between us, just love me_. I wanted to shout the words as loud as possible, but it soon became apparent that I was essentially a coward. "... why did you come back?"

"You tried calling me, I was worried about you since there was no message." Sassy's answer was immediate and filled with certainty. There was a chance that I needed her help so she came to me as quickly as she could, in everyone of her actions Sassy showed me that she cared about me but she was not willing to take it any further. I would not be surprised if she jumped home the minute she found out I had called.

"So tell me what is wrong?" Her brown eyes were penetrating, searching for the reason behind my call. I was afraid she would read my not so innocent thoughts and she would run for the hills.

I looked away from her all knowing eyes before giving my answer. "Nothing," _and everything. Why did she put up these artificial walls between us?_ "I just had a strange night."

"Usually you picking a fight with Embry does not constitute nothing," Sassy pointed out in a tired voice. Looking away from her was hard, the need to see her face was irresistible. Faint lines of worry appeared on her forehead as her mouth pursed in concentration.

I had missed her so much, just looking at her made me happier than I had been all week. Along with the elation from simply being in her presence came other feelings that had been slightly dulled in her absence. Even the slight pucker of her lips was enough to get me going again, my libido had not been satisfied. There had not been enough time during my quick shower to appease my raging hard on, instead I had removed the grass and mud as quickly as possible before heading back to see Sassy.

I shrugged, not really wanting to talk about Michelle and my utter blindness regarding her interest in dating. "I did my good samaritan deed by helping a very nice woman move some boxes. She decided to repay me with an invitation to dinner. So how is your job going?"

"I am finally making some headway with the two clients who have spent the entire week acting like a pair of five year olds. Now what is this about a dinner?" Her tone was mild and I would have probably missed the undercurrent of curiosity had I not been so focused on her every breath. She was slightly different from the last time I saw her, beyond the obvious change of clothes from casual to professional. There was an added tightness around her eyes that had not been there before. Her spine as usual for her was so straight that it never touched the back chair, but despite her exemplary posture there was something off about the way she held her shoulders. Almost as if she had added extra weight to her already burdened shoulders.

"Are you all right?" I asked suddenly concerned, here I was worried about some dating drama and Sassy was troubled by real life concerns. Giving up all pretense of cool I reached over and grabbed one of her hands, the need to touch her finally overcoming my restraint. I gently pulled her long cool fingers towards the center to the table that separated us, after an initial moment of resistance she gave in. My own hands dwarfed the deceptively delicate hand, but that was an illusion. How much had this hand achieved through the ages, how many lives had it altered. Sassy's exact age had never been revealed to me, but my understanding was that after a while people stop counting the years. Only mortals care about the exact numbers, they can tell you their exact age down to the minute. Age would not matter all that much to me, except that it prevented me from being open about my feelings.

I cradled her hand in both of mine, distracted by my thoughts and contentment gained from such a simple touch. The skin on the top of her hand was smooth and clear of all scars, I worried about the roughness of my own skin chaffing her as I lightly rubbed over each knuckle. Your hands could tell a story, about what type of life you had lived. Phil the plastic surgeon would point out that while people might be able to hide behind face lifts and tummy tucks, the hands would never lie. My mother's hands were the only other pair I had even a passing knowledge of, I remember holding onto them a great deal the summer after my father passed away. My mother's hands clearly reflected a lifetime of hard work, they were covered with healed cuts as well as small burns; recently they had added a few extra age spots. Sassy's silken skin was without scars or blemishes, my thumb glided smoothly across the cinnamon colored skin. If I had been a braver man I would have lifted it to my lips to see if the skin tasted as good as it smelled. I had not the courage so instead I asked my question again, "is there something wrong?"

I could hear a slight smile in her voice she answered, "no everything is fine, I just need to get some sleep soon." Now that she mentioned her need for rest I became aware of the slight dark smudges under her beautiful eyes. "My clients will have to come to an agreement soon, there is too much potential money involved."

"Are you sure, I can go with you next time and threaten to kick some butt if they don't get along." I put on my game face and even made a silly little growling sound for her.

She laughed as I intended her to, "you would probably be very effective in scaring my clients but I am not sure how much my boss would appreciate that.

I looked back down at our joined hands, trying to gather the courage to take it a step further. _Come on Seth be a man._

Instead with a great deal of care I wrapped my fingers around her surprisingly narrow wrist and gently moved it so that her hand was now facing palm up cupped in my own.

While the backs of her hand may look delicate enough to be that of a lawyer her palms told a completely different story. Several rough calluses were visible across the surface, their varied placement a testament to Sassy's many roles. The raised pieces of rough skin did not surprise me, I had a set of my own. What shocked me was the myriad of scars that criss-crossed the palms of her hands. I could not discern any sort of pattern to them, but all were remnants of shallow wounds that spanned the length of her palm. The surprise made me look away from her hand back up to her face. Her expression was neutral with a hint of anticipation, I would guess she was waiting for my judgement. "May I see the other one?" I needed no other words for her to understand my request.

The palm of her right hand was filled with similar calluses as the left, it appeared that my mate was ambidextrous when it came to weapons. The scars were missing, making me even more curious as to their origin.

"Where did you get these?" I asked while tracing the slightly discolored line from her thumb to her pinky finger.

"It is part of a tradition, to become a queens bodyguard you have to offer your up your life and sword. I use their swords to cut my hand, so that their blade gets a taste of my blood and knows not to cut me in the heat of battle." She gave a small smile, "there used to be a time when the kings and queens went into battle alongside their warriors. Those times are passed but some of the ceremonies are still maintained."

"Sometimes I forget that you are royalty, it must be hard trying to remember all these traditions. For us we only have to remember a few songs and how to start a bonfire." Honestly though the keeping of the songs was a full time job, Leah was trying to get them on record so that they would not be lost.

"I grew up with the knowledge and the traditions, plus it helped that my grandmother was so old she could remember the original intent of some of these ceremonies. It is interesting how much the words and the meaning behind them have twisted over the generations." She was gazing past me at the window behind me, probably lost in some memory.

"It is easy to forget, we used to think that the songs about the wolf spirit contained within a man were just stories. Little did we know," not that I regret it for myself but it had done more harm than good for some. "We all were surprised, it can but other than the overwhelmed senses when in a crowd it is usually a good thing."

"Speaking of crowds, how was your comedian?" She changed the subject on me, pulling her hands back.

"Surprisingly I had a good time, she was funny in that nothing is sacred sort of way. She takes nothing seriously, including herself." It was nice to shed all responsibility for an hour or so. The only black mark on my evening was the incident with Michelle, I frowned at that memory - what was I going to say to her?

"See that right there, you had fun but then what happened? Is there something wrong about the dinner?" Sassy looked determined, I was not the only one committed to making sure my mate was happy.

"The dinner? No, that is not what is bothering me, but I would rather not talk about that part right now." I still had to figure out about Michelle, and then I would tell Sassy about it. "As for the dinner I was just doing what anyone else would have done but Mrs Williams insisted it was so much more. She was giving a talk at the university regarding women and sexual assault, she needed help taking some boxes to her car."

"Mrs Williams?" I watched as her eyes went from the chocolate brown to a deep purple. It was interesting to see, the darker spots on her iris turned purple and then they just expanded until they covered everything. I had seen this before, Sassy was having a vision. "Oh you mean Judge Williams' wife, he has a reputation of being extremely strict in his courtroom. If his wife invited you for dinner your will need to wear a suit." Sassy told me with a hint of command in her voice. "You should also call Mrs Williams and confirm the invitation as well as ask for the location and time."

"I guess it might be good to find out the time," I mumbled back. "But I don't own a suit, at least not one that fits anymore. Maybe Jake has one I could borrow."

"Of course you have a suit, you have several in fact. I think you even have a tux, I think Aunt Katie slipped that one into your wardrobe. But don't wear the tux, you are young enough that you can get away with a suit. Don't even think about borrowing a one from Jake, there is nothing worse than wearing formal clothes that clearly are not your own." I could see her forming a checklist as she spoke, it would not surprise me to receive a detailed list of instruction by the morning. Some people would think she was being controlling but she did not mean it that way, she was just trying to take care of me.

"Wait I have a tux? Is it in the closet?" Obviously it might be a good plan to dedicate some time in order to figure out what exactly was in there. I had not moved past the jeans and t-shirts that were in the front, the closet was huge and why would I enter it if everything I needed was right there in the front?

"Well I guess I will not need to rent one for Leah's wedding." Phil and Leah might not have set a date, but it was inevitable that they would be married. I was slightly jealous of my sister's relationship, she had it all figure out while it felt like I was at the beginning.

It was getting late into the night and like Embry I too needed to get some sleep. I should have gone to bed with Embry but the draw of spending some time with Sassy was too much. I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I was not worried. I was facing a dilemma, did I need to tell Sassy about Michelle and the fact that she thought we had gone on a date? I did not want to hide things from Sassy but at the same time I did not want to hurt her feelings. To be honest I would have been upset if Sassy went on a date with another man, but this past night had been nothing more than miscommunication on my part.

"I want to talk about what is bothering me now." I told Sassy, honesty was usually a good policy. Plus she was a guardian so finding out other people's secrets was second nature to her. Sassy gave me an encouraging nod to tell me she was listening.

"Well there was this girl..." I had a little bit of a hard time figuring out where to start but it had to be done. It would hurt Sassy's feeling a lot more if she found out about it another way and I was not around to explain what really happened.

"Awww does someone have a little crush?" Sassy cooed at me.

"No, it is not like that. I mean she is a nice girl, but I am not interested in her like that." I was quick to defend myself hoping that Sassy would not misunderstand the situation. I belonged to her and her only, no other woman could possible hold my interest.

"I know Seth," her voice was completely serious now, "however, the fact that you have imprinted on me does not change that you are a kind and considerate young man. It is only natural that girls would be attracted to you."

"I don't wish to control their feelings, I just don't want to be tricked into a date," I was getting a little upset over the fact that Sassy did not think this was a big deal. As cheesy as it might sound to others I wanted to belong to Sassy and it bothered me that people saw me with another girl. Sassy must have heard something in my voice because she did not interrupt me again while I told her the whole story from the beginning to the end. Starting where Michelle in the middle of our lab casually brought up the subject of going to see the comedian to the part where Dani pleaded a headache.

"I would have gone with her for coffee and she would have been under the wrong impression." Clearly I was starting to whine. "Worst of all I still have a class with her, what am I going to tell her on Monday?"

"Seth you are worrying too much about this, she will figure this out on her own. And if someone mentions anything all you have to do is call her a friend." Sassy's confidence in the matter was making me feel a little bit less tense in the situation. Obviously I was making mountains out of mole hills, Sassy suggested that the best plan would be to clearly explain to her that we were friends. "Telling people they are a friend usually is enough of a hint that you don't have feelings for them without having to come out and say I don't like you." Sassy understood my need not to hurt Michelle's feelings. Having helped me with my problem Sassy went off to solve her own.

"Do you have any plans for Sunday?" She asked as she picked up our empty mugs.

"Nothing much to do but study for my midterms." They were coming up in the next few weeks and would coincide with my eighteenth birthday. Well happy birthday to me.

"If you feel comfortable enough to take the day off from your studies I would like to pay off my debt." She told me in a serious tone.

"Your debt?" I asked confused.

"Yes. I owe you dinner and movie where no one knows how old you are." She reminded me of the bet she had lost. "So I will be paying up Sunday."

* * *

A/N: Hi guys, this chapter took a lot longer than I anticipated. I am still trying to work out how best to do descriptions. This is still a learning process for me. So he still needs to get through dinner with a judge and Mrs Williams and after that their big date.

Mememememe: By the way I love that name. Seth got her for a second, I would suggest he just walk around naked but the other roommates might complain.

Inosolan: Yeah naked mud wrestling was an inspiration, I don't think Sassy can last all that much longer. If you know what I mean, lol.


	9. Diner

9 - Diner

It was late Friday afternoon before I had found the time to call up Mrs Williams, after a small meal of leftovers I hunted down the right phone number and made my call regarding the dinner invitation, "may I speak to Mrs Williams?" I asked politely when a strange woman answered the phone number I had been given.

"Sorry she is not available right now but let me connect you with her assistant." That statement alone was intimidating enough and had it not been for caller ID I would have probably hung up right then and there. Five minutes later I had spoken to Mrs William's secretary who did not seem too pleased that an extra person had been invited to dinner, but regardless of that I was given a time and a place.

Had it not been absolutely rude I would not have attended, but Mrs Williams seemed like a nice woman and she had invited me to her home. The address I had been given was in a very wealthy part of town, the large two story brick home with its circle drive fit in perfectly with the rest of the upscale homes. Having borrowed Sassy's car yet again I carefully parked it behind three other vehicles that were lined up in a neat row, at least I hoped this was the proper place for guests. The overcoat that went with the suit was a little bulky but necessary if I was going to keep up the appearances. Temperatures had dropped, and while we had not had a freeze yet the forecaster was calling for it in the next couple of week; needless to say when you added the drizzle a normal human would need the extra coat for protection from the elements. I felt especially silly when I pulled out the umbrella, only newcomers to the region actually used umbrellas but Tiffany had absolutely refused to let me have a raincoat with my suit. She did promise to get me a fedora for christmas if I was good and used my umbrella.

Welcoming bright lights flooded out of every large window on the bottom floor, I would hate to be the one who had to clean all those windows. Circumventing several large urns filled to the brim with autumn flowers I headed for the large double doors. The obvious wealth would have been impressive had I not been used to the family and their oodles of money. A few years back Sassy had taken me briefly to see her castle, it made this place look like a garden shed - though it was extremely unfair to compare a home to Sassy's castle.

It was almost exactly half past six when I reached over to ring the doorbell, I was holding some flowers and the apple butter Sassy had instructed me to take as a gift. I hope my surprise at seeing Mrs Williams open the door did not show on my face, I was expecting someone like the secretary or the housekeeper to greet the guests.

She started out looking at my chest before moving up to my face, this was a common occurrence after my last growth spurt. It took her a moment to recognize who was standing at her front door. "Oh Seth welcome I see you found the way here."

"Good evening, Mrs Williams. Yes I spoke with your secretary. Thank you for the invitation, these are for you." I told her while handing over the gifts.

"Why thank you, young man." Her polite smile had a hint of confusion as she took the small jar from me.

"It is apple butter, my friend and I spent most of last weekend picking and then peeling 150 pound of apples." I explained to her, the stuff was actually really good on toast.

"Thank you, this should be absolutely delicious. Let me introduce you to my husband." She said with a much more genuine smile. She turned towards the severe looking older man standing behind her. He was wearing a tux, which made me more than glad that Sassy had told me to wear a suit. The tie might feel like a noose but it was worth not looking like a fool in front of this somber man. "James this is the very nice young man I told you about. The one that was kind enough to help me the other night."

"Welcome to our home," he said in a clear and commanding tone, somehow reminding me of Sassy when she was giving out orders. Though Sassy looked a lot sexier when she used that voice, I started imagining Sassy giving out orders wearing next to nothing but quickly had to mentally slap myself to get back onto track. I would not leave the best impression if I introduced myself with a huge boner.

"Seth Clearwater. Thank you for having me sir," I did not reach to shake his hand until he lifted his towards me, something else that Sassy had warned me about. Though I was starting to doubt my reason for being here, I should have come up with some sort of excuse for not coming except it might have disappointed Mrs Williams.

"James try not the scare the boy, here let me have Carla take your coat. My don't you look handsome. That shirt is a really good color on you." Mrs Williams appeared determined to make up for her husbands coldness.

"Thank you but I can't take any credit for this, I have to admit that my taste in clothing usually is along the line of jeans and t-shirts. It was actually one of my roommates that picked this out for me." I admitted with a small smile.

"He has good taste. Gay?" She asked with a twinkle in her eyes.

"No actually as far as I know Tiffany is very straight but I usually do not discuss such things with her." I gave her my best impish smile. She appeared to be one of those people who just loved to try to shock you; little did she know that most of the people I knew had mischief as their middle names. Any answer she may have made was prevented by the ringing of the doorbell.

"Gary and Sabrina, and your brought your son Rupert." Mr Williams interrupted my conversation with his wife, grasping her elbow to steer her away form me as he moved to greet the people who had just come in behind me. His greeting of the newcomers was much warmer than the one I had received.

It quickly became obvious that Mr Williams did not like me very much. This impression did not change as the evening went on, every once in a while I would catch him scowling in my direction. I was beyond surprised to recognize Rupert as the Ozzy shirt boy, the one that had been picking on Michelle that first day of class. He was a little pale when Mrs Williams introduced us, I could not tell if it was because he was still afraid of me or was fearful that I would tell his parents the circumstances of our initial "conversation". I let the introduction go without bringing up the fact that we were in the same biology lab, technically this was the first time someone had told me his name.

Dinner was actually a very nice affair, the food was good if a little too high class for my taste. The person sitting on my right was some sort of engineer and we had a nice conversation about his work. The woman on my left completely ignored me and spent the evening practically sitting in the lap of the man next to her; if that was what she thought of as dinner conversation then I was perfectly happy at being ignored.

"My roommate is studying engineering, he absolutely hates the eight am classes." I told the Frank, that was the engineer's name, between courses.

"Yeah I remember those days, that is why when I started my own business I swore that our hours of operations would not begin until ten. But I though your roommate studied history? I never heard of a history and engineering major." He told me as he declined the waiter's offer for more wine. He looked to be in his mid forties, and like most of the older men was wearing a tux that I was willing to bet was not rented. He might have been intimidating if it was not for the fact that the man never stopped smiling.

"That would be my sister, she is the history major. I learned from her mistakes and never tried living in a dorm. Instead I moved in with her and her boyfriend who happens to be a plastic surgeon and so has enough room to host several of us."

"Plastic surgeon huh? Sounds much better than dorms. Smart move kid," he saluted me with his water glass.

"Yup, the only problem is that I am not the only one that is this smart. I don't know how it happened but since he built the house a few years ago he has somehow acquired four boys. Three other guys from my tribe are also staying there, which is very nice of Phil considering we could probably not afford to go to UW any other way."

"That sounds chaotic," Frank replied with a small laugh.

"Not really, he expanded the house a few years ago. It is a little bigger than this place, though a lot less..." I tried to find the best way to put it.

"Ostentatious? The Williams family comes from a lot of money and you can tell. Me I prefer a little bit simpler life, though this can be nice every once in a while." He pointed at the remains of his meal. "So what type of car does your plastic surgeon drive?"

Luckily we were interrupted by food before I could answer, honestly speaking I did not pay much attention to Phil's car. It could not compare to Edward Cullen's, I mean how could you compete with James Bond's car? After dinner was a mixture of good and bad, I got to meet with some very nice people but Judge Williams did his best to glare me. It was not until nearly the end of the night that I realized his motivation for making me feel unwelcome, I overheard him talking to one of his friends. "The large native american boy? You know Joanna, she likes to pick up strays. I just hope that this one will turn out better than the last few. I don't think Joanna was even all that upset over the fact that the last girl she brought home stole from us. My wife was much more upset because the girl would not accept help with her drug problem. This kid looks strong enough to do some serious damage if that was what he wanted to do, I will not have him hurting my wife."

I could not blame Mr Williams for being protective of his wife, in fact I applauded the man for it. It made me feel a little better that his cold shoulder was not meant anything personal, he did not know me well enough to realize I could never hurt his wife. I looked around trying to find an excuse to leave this party, unfortunately for me it looked like people were just starting to settle around the large room. No one looked even close to being ready to leave, which meant I would have to continue to stay; as soon as the first person left I would be two steps behind them.

"Seth come let me introduce you to Larry," Mrs Williams called me across the room. She had been playing the perfect hostess, making sure that I got to meet everyone. I could not decide why she bothered considering with the exception of Rupert I would not get to see any of these people again.

Unfortunately she led me to the group of people surrounding her husband, and from his scowl he did not want me to come anywhere near him. I was not about to go against the wishes of his wife, so it impossible to move away to from Mrs Williams despite the glares her husband kept throwing in my direction.

"Larry this is the very helpful young who saved me from breaking my back, Seth this is Larry Henley." She quickly made the introductions to yet another old man whose name I would promptly forget. I had been doing that a lot this evening.

"Nice to meet you sir," I told him while shaking his hand and ignoring the unwelcoming man next to him. "Henley? Is that anything to do with Swallow, Henley and Ferguson?"

"Yes that is my law firm. Why do you ask? Do you need legal representation for some trouble with the law?" He asked with a not so honest smile. Judge Williams just twitched next to him, waiting for me to admit to being the criminal. You could almost see the anticipation as he listened for the confirmation of his suspicions.

"Actually do you know a lawyer by the name of Josefine Stone?" Swallow, Henley and Ferguson was the law firm Sassy worked for.

"Yes of course she is one of my rising starts. Smart, hard working and willing to go that extra mile. Though her specialty is business law?" Mr Henley was starting to sound suspicious. Yeah why exactly would an obviously native american know a hotshot lawyer like Josefine Stone? I suppressed a smile as I considered explaining our non-existent relationship to him.

"She is a good friend of my family. Actually her cousin Kendrick has pretty much been like a father to me for the past few years." Kendrick could never replace my father but he was a good guy who had taught me a great deal of things that my mother would never have thought of.

"Oh you are _that_ Seth, Josefine talks about you all the time. She has high hopes for you; has she tired to lure you into the glamorous world of law." He gave me quick smile, this time it was genuine. "If you have half as much potential as she claims then all you have to do is pass the bar exam and I will personally hire you."

I could not help the blush that spread across my cheeks, the thought of Sassy praising me filled me with pleasure.

Mrs Williams must have noticed my embarrassment because she quickly jumped in to save the day. "Oh this Josefine sounds fun, why did you not ask her to come to dinner, don't you agree James?"

To my great surprise there was actually a smile on Judge William's face, it seemed my connection with Josefine gave me enough credit that he was willing to consider the possibility of my innocence. I was somewhat insulted that it was the mentioning of a name that cause him to change his mind instead of my own actions.

"She is working right now, and could not have come but I am sure she would have appreciated the invitation." I told Mrs Williams politely.

"Working, on a Saturday night? Larry what kind of a place do you run that you don't give them an evening off? All work and no play is not good for anyone." Mrs Williams wagged her finger at Sassy's boss who looked uncomfortable with the reprimand. It was not a secret that young lawyers worked day and night as they made their way up the ladder.

"She is currently in India, refereeing some sort of negotiations." I quickly spoke up before he got into too much trouble. "She could not give me any detail due to client confidentiality but she did say the two groups were acting like a bunch of five year olds who were in need of a nap."

Everyone in the group laughed along with Mr Henley. "Oh I am not too worried about it, she will find a way to reach a compromise," he told Mrs Williams with a wink. "She is far too good at managing people who don't even realize they are being managed at all. WIth her skills at appeasing people without actually promising anything the woman was practically born to be a politician, it is a lucky for us that she chose to join our law firm instead of becoming some politicians aide."

I suppressed my smile, Mr Henley was right. Sassy was born to be a leader, a queen in fact.

After Judge Williams realized that I had the proper connection he seemed to thaw and went even so far as to ask about my plans. I don't know how we got onto the topic, maybe it was something his wife mentioned about her charity work but soon we were discussing who had jurisdiction on reservation land and how the poorly defined laws made it hard to prosecute crimes. He was a keenly intelligent man who had served as a judge for many years, this had given him a slightly cynical view of the world.

* * *

"All in all the evening went well," I told Sassy that night when she called me to ask about my night out. "By the way thanks for saving me."

"Seth how could I have possibly saved you, I was not even there." There was some strange music in the background, Sassy had mentioned something about a festival but she had not said they were celebrating day and night. This might be the explanation as to why she look so sleep deprived on Thursday night.

"One of the partners was there from your firm and when I mentioned your name he recognized mine. What have you been saying about me at work?" I told her with a mock growl.

"Oh which one was there?" She asked trying to take control of the conversation.

"Henley and you did not answer my question." I was determined to know what she had been told Mr Henley to make him recognize my name.

"Well I might have said a few nice things about you, especially regarding the fact that you were such a kind and responsible young man." Her tone clearly indicated that she was leaving a great deal out.

"It was kind of strange meeting one of the partners of your law firm there." What were the odds of meeting one of her bosses at a dinner party hosted by someone I met on campus.

"Not really, the top tier of the lawyer world is a very incestuous place. Everyone knows everyone else and most of them are in bed together." She sounded like she was joking but I was not too sure that here words were entirely a metaphor. Honestly I did not want to hear the details of the relationships that went on behind the closed doors.

"After Judge Williams thawed a little bit we had an interesting conversation regarding the jurisdiction and rape victims on reservations. He was telling me that there was nothing that could be done on a state level and that the laws would have to be changed by the federal government. He actually was nice enough to invite me to his courtroom one day to observe the how the law was implemented." That had been a complete turnaround from his initial behavior.

"Seriously? He invited you to his court?" Sassy sounded surprised and pleased, "you do know that some judges will accept interns. It is a really good way to be exposed to the law and also an amazing way to pad your applications. If you were to intern with a judge as prestigious as Williams and you grades are decent you could pretty much take your pick of law schools."

"Well he did not say internship, he just said to observe." I did not want to jump to conclusions, plus who had said anything about law school. Sassy was the second person to mention law school in less than twenty four hours.

"A man who wanted to kick you out his house that has moved onto inviting you into his courtroom is not a casual request." Sassy pointed out in a dry tone.

"I don't know Sassy," I started to tell her that it could have been just him being kind but then I remembered having a similar conversation with her a few days ago. She had been correct in her assessment of the dinner, why would she be wrong about this? "Maybe you are right it was kind of neat listening to him talk about interpreting the laws and how even though you might disagree with a law you still have to follow the rules."

"I am glad you enjoyed yourself, and of course I am always happy to help you navigate the strange world of dinner parties." It was interesting to note that she did not say I told you so, despite the fact that she had been absolutely right about the seriousness of the invitation. Sassy never said I told you so, she had way too much class to do that.

"All right my pretty psychic," I was getting a little bold, but she would not be able to see my blush for calling her mine. "Was there something on my last palm reading that you have neglected to mention? Is this why you suggested that I try and find an extracurricular activity, because you think I would go into law?" I had not given much thought to my future beyond the fact that I wanted Sassy to be a part of it, even my college classes were general enough that if I put of making a decision on a major until my junior year it would be enough for me to graduate on time. Maybe I should have been more like my sister who had pretty much her life planned out for the next twenty years or so. It had been hard to watch my sister after Sam's betrayal, she had fallen apart. Leah always had to know what was coming next and she had been lost when her future with Sam had not happened the way she had envisioned it.

At eighteen I was expected to make decisions regarding what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. It was a daunting decision, one which I was trying to push off as long as possible. While I was not ready to make a choice at this time it did not mean I would not listen to my mates advice. This was not only due to the fact that se was my mate but also because he had lived a long time and only a fool would disregard her suggestions.

"I plead the fifth," she told me with a laugh. "About the choice of careers I might or might not have seen in your tea leaves. Seth you really need to relax, there is a small detail you seem to forget, when you live forever you get to pick more than one career."

"So what you are saying is that law might be a good choice for this lifetime?" The being immortal was one thing that was starting to freak me out, though Tiffany usually was quick to point out that no one lived forever - some people just lived a little longer than others. That was the understatement of the year, but I was not going to complain about the fact that if things worked out right I would get more than one lifetime with Sassy. For some reason I could not see myself being satisfied with only sixty years or so of her company.

"I think you should do as you wish, but it would be wise accept Judge Williams' offer." Her tone sounded serious and I promised to consider going to see the law in action.

"I have some bad news, our plans for tomorrow will have to be delayed until another day." She sounded genuinely contrite, "I would explain why but that would ruin the surprise, so you will have to be a little more patient with me."

"So I will not see you tomorrow?" My deep disappointment was obvious.

"The prospects look a lot better for two weeks from now, I apologize for the delay." Sassy's voice became low as she spoke of the change in plans. "That way you will have finished with your midterms." The noise of the revelry outside her rooms were getting louder and soon I was not even able even enjoy our conversation for much longer. I spent a great deal of Sunday wondering what it was that could have made break our plans.

* * *

Monday turned out to be a dreary day especially when I foolishly showed up early to Biology Lab to find that Michelle was the only other on of our group present. I should have remembered that Dani and Tom tended to be late, it would have been a lot less awkward had Michelle and I not been sitting alone together.

"So hi," I told her while setting my backpack down as far away from her as possible without being rude.

Watching Michelle's smile of obvious pleasure at such a simple greeting made me feel guilty about not realizing earlier that she liked me. "Hi, we really missed you at the coffee shop. It was really fun."

I spent a few moments choosing my words carefully, this was the best opportunity to put a stop to this before she got hurt. "I am sorry for bailing on you but there were several women, including my mother, who would have put the hurt on me if I left a lady in distress to go hang out with friends." Did that sound too much like I wanted to go with her, or was she picking up on the friend word?

"Oh I guess we should have stayed and helped you, that was kind of shitty for us to just walk away." She was starting to sound a little guilty about leaving me.

I wanted Sassy with me so badly right about now, she was good at this sort of stuff. "No it was cool, she was a very nice woman that was so impressed with my chivalry that she invited me to dinner so she could introduce me to her husband."

"Wow, that was very nice of her." Michelle seemed surprised at this. "Was the food good?"

"I am a poor starving college kid, I will pretty much eat anything." I forced out the joke, trying to keep the conversation away from dangerous grounds. "Though honestly the food was good, if a little too rich for my taste. I will take a good fish fry over caviar any day."

"Oh you like fried fish? Michelle found this awesome little place. The food is good and fairly cheap. Maybe you two could go there sometime." Dani interrupted my increasingly awkward chat with Michelle, though my relief lasted only moments as I realized that Dani was trying to set up up for another date.

"Thanks for the offer but I prefer to make my own, my dad taught me how to make some using the secret family recipe before he died." It was probably the wast quantities of fried fish that led to the heart attack that killed him at such a relatively young age. Luckily Tom showed up wanting to talk about some disappointing sports game from Sunday night, I quickly latched onto the topic as a way to move away from Dani's next attempt to set me up with her friend.

I had never been so glad to hear our lab assistant, Mr Harper tell us to quiet down so he could go over the day's assignment. I looked towards the front of the class with much more concentration than was warranted for the topic. This reprieve would not last long, after about thirty minutes of talking and a quick fifteen minute quiz we were free to talk amongst ourselves.

"By the way what the hell happened last Thursday?" Tom the backstabbing ex-friend asked even before we could open our books.

"What do you mean?" I tried playing stupid.

"He wanted to come but he was helping out that old lady," Michelle was quick to come to my defense. Clearly it was my good hearted nature that kept me away from her side, not the fact that I was not interested. My frustration was making me into an asshole, if only in my thoughts and that would not be tolerated.

"I needed to get home anyway, it is forty minute drive and that with no traffic." The commute was a pain but the peace of the forest was totally worth it. I would have gone insane if I had to live in the city, no wonder my sister had a hard time sleeping here.

"You said you lived off campus, where do you live again?" Dani's voice told me she had an ulterior purpose but for the life of me I could not figure out what it was. I decided enough was enough and steered the topic back to the lab.

For the next hour and a half I dodged subtle questions from Dani, not so subtle ones form Michelle and even Tom threw in a few of them of his own. He had picked up on the fact that Michelle was interested in me and saw no reason not to help her along.

I was more than ready to finish with the lab and had my books ready to go as soon as Dani copied our results into her worksheet. Tom was just a few steps behind me as I headed down the stairs and still determined to ask me questions about Michelle and I.

"What the hell? You know it was not a date." I told him after making sure we were out of earshot. At my current level of frustration I might say something that would truly hurt Michelle's feelings.

"You should see your face. Oh come on you are going to have to start dating sometime and Michelle seems like a nice enough girl." He tried to give me a little shove of encouragement but I did not budge. "Plus a bird in the hand."

"I told you I was not interested in dating, but no one bothers to listen to my wishes." I ground out between clenched teeth, the wolf temper was starting to rise. Tom was trying to push me into being unfaithful to my mate. Nothing would ever happen but in my mind there was only one woman I would ever belong to and it irked me that someone else was trying to claim me.

"Geez calm down, dude I am starting to think you were gay or something." He gave me a speculative look, but the slightly wrinkly plaid shirt I was wearing would probably not set off any gaydars.

"Yes let us start the Seth is gay rumors, that way I can have a couple of gay guys trying to pick me up as well." Why was it that if a guy was not interested in dating all of a sudden he became homosexual?

"See you need to chill out, have a little casual sex," Tom even went so far as to make thrusting and spanking gestures. Seriously did he come here straight from junior high?

"I DON'T do casual sex." I told him while holding onto my anger, it was only because he did not know about Sassy. The thought of doing anything of that sort with anyone else made me furious. To distract myself I pulled out my phone wanting to text my sister to see if she was on campus and willing to give me a ride. I could not stay in the company of normal humans anymore, it would be best to go home and run until my anger dissipated. There was an unread text message waiting for me: Hi Seth, back in town. Early Dinner? Call me.

The message was from Sassy, the anger flowed out of my body and was quickly replaced with joy at the prospect of seeing her again so soon. My reply was immediate. Food sounds good, I am can leave now if you want to come pick me up.

"Woah, who is it that you are texting?" Tom asked, I had forgotten that he was with me. That was not an unusual occurrence since I tended to forget everything but my mate when we were talking.

"No one, just a friend," I shrugged my shoulders trying to contain my exuberance.

"That was not a no one smile. I am willing to be it is some girl, no wonder you don't want to date Michelle when you are interested in someone else." He gave me a knowing smirk. "Why the hell did you not just tell me you already had a girl picked out? I could totally be your wingman."

"It is not what you think," this is not some schoolboy crush, it was the real thing and my wolf instincts were backing me up on this one. "Anyway she is not some girl." She was a woman, from the top of her head with the perfectly coiled hair to the tips of her gleaming shoes.

"Oh an older woman, so she is like a MILF or something?" Tom was very interested in the details.

"Do I even want to know what MILF means?" I was afraid I knew what that stood for but I was hoping to be wrong.

"Oh please, tell me you are not this innocent. MILF, come on, mother I'd like to fuck?" He was about to start making the thrusting gestured yet again.

"Are you always this respectful to women, is sex all you think about?" While I spent a great deal of time and mental energy on imagining what I wanted for us to do together, but my thoughts were an extension of my love for my mate. I wanted to hold her as close as possible and show her using my body how much I loved her. It was not me wanting to scratch some sort of hormonal itch like this boy way implying. Though occasionally I just wanted to strip her naked and do dirty things that I had never done before.

"Oh come on why are you being such a prude?" His sour tone declared that he was not happy with my withholding of information.

"Maybe because I have a sister and I don't want some guy treating her that way." My phone beeped signaling a new text message, Sassy was on her way to pick me up. "See you later, my ride is on their way." I told Tom as I lengthened my stride in order to leave him and his disgusting assumptions about Sassy aside.

* * *

A/N: Sorry this was really a fluff chapter. I want to thank each and everyone who reviewed, I truly appreciate hearing your thoughts. More dirty dirty things will follow but you will have to be very patient with me, life is getting crazier and I don't see it changing in the next few months.


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